Overview

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.

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"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. He has contributed to, among others, the Socialist Register, American Journal of Sociology, Boston Review, and New Left Review. Shawn K. Jain is a Harvard University/Moscow Art Theater School/A.R.T. Institute graduate. Shawn has TV credits for shows on Apple TV+, CBS, HBO Max, Amazon Prime, Showtime, and Peacock, and he has narrated audiobooks for Penguin Random House, Hachette, Bloomsbury, HarperCollins, Epic!, Blackstone, GraphicAudio, and HQN. Shawn can be heard on many episodes of the romcom podcast Meet Cute and on Atypical Artists' audio dramas Life with LEO(h) and Maxine Miles. He also voiced a migrant worker for UCLA Labor Center's Re: Work Radio podcast. Sean Daniels, artistic director of Arizona Theatre Company, said he finds ""few actors funnier in the world than Shawn."" Prior to saying yes to his calling to be an actor, Shawn was a communications and marketing professional who did important work with organizations like the ACLU and the International AIDS Society. Born and raised in Northern California, Shawn received his BA from UC Berkeley. In addition to acting, Shawn has several pilots in development. Shawn writes stories that deal with the brokenness of people and society (even when things seem glittering and beautiful on the outside). Shawn is queer and of South Asian descent. A native English speaker who is fluent in Spanish and conversant in Hindi, Shawn can do British, Farsi, Hindi, Indian, Urdu, and Arabic accents."

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