The Age of Access: The New Culture of Hypercapitalism, Where All of Life Is a Paid-For Experience - Hardcover

Rifkin, Jeremy

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1585420182 ISBN 13: 9781585420186

Publisher: Tarcher, 2000

Synopsis

Identifying and explaining the paradigm shift in American business, the author of The End of Work and The Biotech Century shows how ownership of property is giving way to accessing experiences as the key to power in business. 50,000 first printing.

About this title

Review:

He's been called the postmodern Chicken Little, but it happens that the sky really is falling. Jeremy Rifkin pulls the plug on the trend away from property ownership and free public life in The Age of Access: The New Culture of Hypercapitalism Where All of Life Is a Paid-For Experience. As usual, he's a bit ahead of the curve--most of us aren't fully immersed yet in the sea of leased products and packaged experiences that he sees awaiting us. Still, his eerie vision of a world of gatekeepers paying each other for access to nearly every aspect of human life brings a chilling new meaning to the phrase "pay to play" and should spark some debate over our new cultural revolution.

Using examples from business and government experiments with just-in-time access to goods and services and resource sharing, Rifkin defines a new society of renters who are too busy breaking the shackles of material possessions to mourn the passing of public property. Are we encouraging alienation or participation? Can we trust corporations with stewardship of our social lives? True to form, the author asks more questions than he answers--a sign of an open mind. If property is theft, leased access is extortion, and The Age of Access warns us of the complex changes coming in our relationships with our homes, our communities, and our world. --Rob Lightner

About the Author:

An internationally renowned social critic, Jeremy Rifkin is the bestselling author of The End of Work and The Biotech Century, which was translated into sixteen languages. He is president of the Foundation on Economic Trends in Washington, D.C., and is a fellow at the Wharton School of Finance and Commerce Executive Program. He lives in Washington, D.C.

About this edition

• Publisher: Tarcher
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 1585420182
• ISBN 13: 9781585420186
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 312