The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism
2007 • 720 pages
Ratings26
Average rating4.1
15
Ratings26
Average rating4.1
An introduction to "disaster capitalism" argues that the global free market has exploited crises, violence, and shock in the past three decades to promote radical privatization that benefits large corporations and powerful interest groups.
Reviews with the most likes.
I enjoyed this book, but I was hoping for more explanation of people, concepts, and other things. Perhaps I was just expecting something different, but I don't think I understand these concepts enough to fairly evaluate whether or not they ring true.
If the claims made in this book (I listened to the audiobook, I don't know if Naomi Klein cites their sources) are true, the things described here are absolutely disgusting, especially with what the U.S. did with Iraq. This book just makes me realize that extremism in any sense is unhealthy (at least from what I understand). There needs to be checks and balances to the power of governments and corporations. It's an interesting world we live in. I was young during the early 2000's, so it was interesting to read and see a little bit of how 9/11 affected the world and how it changed everything.
Quotes:
“Only a crisis-actual or perceived-produces real change. When that crisis occurs, the actions that are taken depend on the ideas that are lying around. That, I believe, is our basic function: to develop alternatives to existing policies, to keep them alive and available until the politically impossible becomes politically inevitable.” - Milton Friedman
“Much of this purism came from Friedrich Hayek, Friedman's own personal guru, who also taught at the University of Chicago for a stretch in the 1950's. The austere Austrian warned that any government involvement in the economy would lead society down the road to serfdom and had to be expunged. According to Arnold Harburger, the Austrians were so zealous that any state interference was not just wrong, but evil. Though always cloaked in the language of math and science, Freedman's vision coincided with the interests of large multinationals, which by nature, hunger for vast, new, unregulated markets. In the first stage of capitalist expansion, that kind of ravenous growth was provided by colonialism, by discovering new territories and grabbing land without paying for it, then extracting riches from the Earth without compensating local populations.”
I read a little over 400 pages of this book before Christmas and then put it down for quite awhile. I needed a break from the list of realities that Klein describes. I'm really glad I picked it up again and finished it. There is no doubt that she stretches her point at times to fit her argument, and I know that others have disagreed with her read on some of representations of economists and economic theory, but I was impressed by her breadth and focus and most importantly her passion. It was a pleasure to read a book by an individual who is clearly outraged, yet able to clearly and carefully construct an argument. I'm eager to read more on neo-liberalism and economics.
