Confronting Capitalism: How the World Works and How to Change It
Vivek Chibber
Aug 2023 · Tantor Media Inc · Narrated by Shawn K. Jain
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3 hr 58 min
Unabridged
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About this audiobook
Why is our society so unequal? Why, despite their small numbers, do the rich dominate policy and politics even in democratic countries? Why is it so difficult for working people to organize around common interests? How do we begin to build a more equal and democratic society? Vivek Chibber provides a clear and accessible map of how capitalism works, how it limits the power of working and oppressed people, and how to overcome those limits. The capitalist economy generates incredible wealth but also injustice. Those who own the factories, hotels, and farms always have an advantage over the people who rely on that ownership class for their livelihoods. This inequality in power and income is reflected in the operation of the state, where capitalists are able to exert their will even under relatively democratic conditions. The most important reason is that states depend on the employment and profits from capitalist enterprise for both finances and legitimacy. Every meaningful victory for working people has been won through collective struggle but collective action is very difficult to coordinate. In the final section of the book, Chibber walks the listener through some of the historical attempts to build socialism and presents a vision of how we might, perhaps against the odds, build a socialist future.
About the author
Vivek Chibber is a professor of sociology at New York University and editor of the Catalyst: A Journal of Theory and Strategy. He is the author of Postcolonial Theory and the Specter of Capital and Locked in Place: State-Building and Late Industrialization in India, which won the Barrington Moore, Jr. Prize.
Shawn K. Jain, a Harvard University/Moscow Art Theater School/A.R.T. Institute graduate, has TV credits for shows on Apple TV+, CBS, HBO Max, Amazon Prime, Showtime, and Peacock. He has narrated audiobooks for Penguin Random House, Hachette, Bloomsbury, HarperCollins, Epic!, Blackstone, GraphicAudio, and HQN.
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