Turbo-Capitalism: Winners And Losers In The Global Economy - Hardcover

Luttwak, Edward N.; Weidenfeld & Nicolson

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0060193301 ISBN 13: 9780060193300

Publisher: Harper, 1999

Synopsis

In this incisive critical analysis of today's free market capitalism, Edward Luttwak shows how it is vastly different from the controlled capitalism that flourished so successfully from 1945 to the 1980s. Turbo-capitalism is private enterprise liberated from government regulation, unchecked by effective trade unions, unfettered by concerns for employees or investment restrictions, and unhindered by taxation. It promises a dynamic, expanding economy and new wealth.

The winners--the architects and acrobats of techno-organizational change--become much richer; the losers, the majority, become relatively or absolutely poorer and are forced by downsizing to take the traditional jobs of the underclass, more and more of whom end up in prison. Edward Luttwak challenges the conventional wisdom that jobs lost in old industries will be replaced by jobs in new ones. If General Motors fires you, Microsoft will not hire you; instead you'll be working in 'services,' often poorly paid.

Led by the United States, closely followed by Britain, turbo-capitalism is spreading fast throughout Europe, Asia, and the rest of the world (only in France and Japan is there any resistance) without the two great forces that check its enormous power in the United States: a powerful legal system and the stringent rules of American Calvinism. Acknowledging the great efficiency of turbo-capitalism, Luttwak provides no solutions but describes in powerful detail the major societal upheavals and inequities it causes and the broad dissatisfaction and anxiety that may result. He suggests this is a high price to pay for this great dilemma of our times.

"They call it the free market, but that is shorthand for much more than the freedom to buy and sell. What they celebrate, preach, and demand is private enterprise liberated from government regulation, unchecked by effective trade unions, unfettered by sentimental concerns over the fate of employees or communities, unrestrained by customs barriers or investment restrictions, and molested as little as possible by taxation. What they insistently demand is the privatization of state-owned businesses of all kind and the conversion of public institutions from universities and botanical gardens to prisons, from libraries and schools to old-age homes into private enterprises run for profit. What they promise is more dynamic economy that will generate new wealth--while saying nothing about the distribution of any wealth, old or new. They call it the free market, but I call it turbo-capitalism because it is so profoundly different from the strictly controlled capitalism that flourished from 1945 until the 1980s, and that brought the sensational novelty of mass affluence to the peoples of the United States, Western Europe, Japan, and all other countries that followed their paths."
-- Edward Luttwak

About this title

Review:

A new kind of capitalism is raging around the globe--and its economic and social consequences could be crippling. In Turbo-Capitalism, Edward Luttwak, a noted international strategist and consultant, warns that the free market has gone amok. He predicts possible massive increases in poverty, crime, and unemployment, especially in the Third World, which lacks the political and legal systems of the U.S. Unlike the benign, carefully controlled capitalism that ruled from the 1940s to the 1980s, this new whirlwind capitalism will eventually create tremendous social upheaval. "Allowing turbo-capitalism to have its way, as in the United States and the United Kingdom, results in widening income differentials in exchange for not-so-rapid growth," writes Luttwak, who provides plenty of statistics to support his argument. Luttwak acknowledges that economic progress could be crippled if the world returns to the old model of government regulation, and this he calls the "great dilemma," with no easy answers.

While Luttwak's interest is more global, he offers some domestic examples to illustrate the effects of capitalism unleashed. He points to Boeing, which suffered from massive layoffs in the 1990s, even as aircraft orders soared. And he ridicules the notion that high-tech will come to the rescue with thousands of new jobs for downsized blue-collar and white-collar workers, calling these hopes "The Microsoft Mirage." A sweeping, sometimes densely written treatise, Turbo-Capitalism raises important questions for policymakers and business leaders. --Dan Ring

About the Author:

Edward Luttwak is a strategist, consultant, and writer. He is the author of ten books, including Coup d'État, The Grand Strategy of the Roman Empire, The Pentagon and the Art of War, Strategy: The Logic of War and Peace, and The Endangered American Dream. He is Senior Fellow at the Center for Strategic and international Studies in Washington, D.C

About this edition

• Publisher: Harper
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 0060193301
• ISBN 13: 9780060193300
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 304