UNCHECKED CAPITALISM IS KILLING US!

A debut work offers a rallying cry for economic and political reform.

Though his book is a searing indictment against 21st-century global capitalism, Rynerson insists in his opening line “I am not a socialist….I am an American.” Indeed, the former Kentucky farm boy has a lifetime of service to his country, having spent two decades in the Air Force and as president of the board of San Francisco’s Big Brothers/Big Sisters. As have many Americans of both major political parties, the author—who at different points has been a Republican and a Democrat and is now an independent—has become increasingly concerned with the growth of unchecked corporate influence in the United States. In this exposé, he tackles over a dozen industries, clearly delineating their negative impacts on contemporary society. The book convincingly makes the case that underregulated corporations are directly to blame for nearly every major issue that decreases America’s standard of living, including inequitable access to health care, wage stagnation, obesity, the opioid epidemic, and even the ideological polarization stoked by social media and partisan news outlets. While many politicians, from Republican Ted Cruz to independent Bernie Sanders, rhetorically lament the unwieldy growth of corporate power, the two major parties are both implicated in Rynerson’s account. According to the author, President Ronald Reagan’s systematic deregulation of industries began the process, but President Bill Clinton’s endorsement of policies favored by his home state’s largest corporation, Wal-Mart, is also to blame for creating today’s milieu of offshore accounts and outsourcing. Not bound by party positions, Rynerson is just as skeptical of globalization, a bogeyman of today’s right, as he is of Wall Street, the left’s go-to villain. His chapter blaming obesity on the food industry for deliberately obscuring ingredient lists and targeting children is particularly compelling. There is even a chapter on the role of corporate greed in inhibiting America’s response to Covid-19. Despite its evenhanded, if hard-hitting, approach, the book is at times redundant in its relentless emphasis on corporate greed.

A well-researched argument against America’s largest corporations and the politicians who enable them.