Surplus American: How the 1% is Making Us Redundant

by Derber,Charles

• ISBN13: 9781612052502
• ISBN10: 1612052509
• Format: Nonspecific Binding
• Copyright: 2012-09-30
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

The Surplus Americanvividly presents a future where increasing numbers of Americans will be rendered jobless and redundant. Exploring the ongoing crisis of surplus people today, authors Charles Derber and Yale Magrass show that the jobless are merelythe tip of the iceberg. Drawing on the work of economists and highlighting new trends, the bookidentifies a number of primary groups within the category of surplus, including the underemployed, people forcibly removed or induced to leave the labor force, retirees, people involved in make-work by government or business, those hired to control the unemployed, as well as those employed to boost consumption and manage unrest. Derber and Magrassargue persuasively that a majority of the US public is now part of the surplus population and constitutes an economic and social category that is a crucial and integral underside of our capitalist economy. Offering a timely analysis of current social movements such as Occupy Wall Street, the authors conclude that they are essential not only to solving the crisis of surplus people but also to redirecting an economy driven by outsourcing, new technology, and global corporate strategy.

Author Biography

Charles Derber, a noted social critic, is Professor of Sociology at Boston College. He is the author of internationally acclaimed books, including Corporation Nation, Hidden Power, The Wilding of America, and, most recently Marx's Ghost: Midnight Conversations on Changing the World (Paradigm 2011). His books have been translated into multiple languages, and he is a regular contributor to Cognescenti the opinion page of Boston's NPR station, WBUR. Yale R. Magrass is a Chancellor Professor of Sociology at the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth, where he teaches social theory, political sociology, and the social impact of science and technology. He is the author of several books and more than forty articles.

Table of Contents

You're Fired-The Essay	p. 1
Americans as a Surplus People	p. 3
Who Are the Surplus People?	p. 7
How to Make Money from the Creation of Surplus People	p. 13
The Four Roots of Surplus People Production	p. 17
How Many Surplus People Are There in the United States?	p. 23
Introducing the History of Surplus People	p. 25
How Capitalism Created Surplus People Right from the Very Beginning	p. 27
How the First Truly Industrial Society, Britain, Used Surplus People	p. 30
How American Capitalists Controlled the Surplus Population before World War I	p. 31
World War I and the Roaring Twenties	p. 34
The Great Depression Begins	p. 37
Roosevelt, Keynes, and the New Deal	p. 39
America at Its Height	p. 45
America Enters Decline	p. 51
The Age of Reagan	p. 56
Does Our Theory Hold Up?	p. 63
What to Do? The Tea Party and the Occupy Movement	p. 71
The Tea Party and the Dangerous Politics of Reaction	p. 73
The Occupy Movement and the Politics of Hope	p. 77
The Past and Future of the Occupy Movement	p. 79
Why a Play Is an Effective Way to Discuss Politics and Economics	p. 94
Notes	p. 101
I Like Firing People-The Play	p. 111
I Like Firing People-A Version Performed at Boston College	p. 189
Index	p. 221
About the Authors	p. 227
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