Cheap : The High Cost of Discount Culture

by Ruppel Shell, Ellen (Author)

• ISBN13: 9780143117636
• ISBN10: 0143117637
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2010-06-29
• Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics)

Summary

A myth-shattering investigation of the true cost of America's passion for finding a better bargain From the shuttered factories of the Rust Belt to the strip malls of the Sun Belt-and almost everywhere in between-America has been transformed by its relentless fixation on low price. This pervasive yet little- examined obsession with bargains is arguably the most powerful and devastating market force of our time, having fueled an excess of consumerism that blights our landshy;scapes, escalates personal debt, lowers our standard of living, and even skews of our concept of time. Spotlighting the peculiar forces that drove Americans away from quality, durability, and craftsmanship and towards quantity, quantity, and more quantity, Ellen Ruppel Shell traces the rise of the bargain through our current big-box profusion to expose the astronomically high cost of cheap

Author Biography

Ellen Ruppel Shell is a correspondent for The Atlantic and has written for numerous other national publications. She also is a professor of journalism at Boston University, where she co-directs the graduate program in science journalism. She lives in Boston.

Table of Contents

Note to Readers	p. xiii
Introduction: Gresham's Law	p. 1
Discount Nation	p. 7
The Founding Fathers	p. 30
Winner Take Nothing	p. 55
The Outlet Gambit	p. 88
Markdown Madness	p. 109
Death of a Craftsman	p. 125
Discounting and its Discontents	p. 149
Cheap Eats	p. 163
The Double-Headed Dragon	p. 188
The Perfect Price	p. 207
Acknowledgments	p. 233
Notes	p. 239
Bibliography	p. 281
Index	p. 287
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