Profit Pathology and Other Indecencies (May 22, 2015)
- Dr. Michael J. Parenti
Interviewed by Professors Mickey Huff and Peter Phillips.
Compiled by Xena Crystal Huang on June 4, 2015
33.5 minutes.
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Brief: "From from welfare to wealth care, from pedophiles to popes, from plutocrats to environmental plunderers—these are just some of the indecencies of contemporary socio-economic life that Profit Pathology takes on.
Dr. Michael Parenti investigates how class power is a central force in our political life yet subject to little critical discernment. He notes how big-moneyed interests shift the rules of the game in their favor while undoing the gains of social democracy, from the New Deal to the present. Dr. Parenti also traces the ruthless economic forces that have operated through much of American history, including the mass displacement and extermination of Native Americans and the enslavement of Africans.
Dr. Parenti is a master at demonstrating the impact of monomaniacal profit accumulation on social services, including health care and utilities. In this book he shows how unrestrained capitalism becomes a "self-devouring beast" that endangers itself and all of us.
Finally, Dr. Parenti calls for a solution based on democratic diversity and not-for-profit public ownership—'because it works.' "
Table of Contents of Profit Pathology and Other Indecencies:
Part One: Class, Race, and Empire
1. The Great Class Divide
2. Ethnicity and Exploitation: A Quick History of the Boiling Pot
3. Empire in Extremis? Some Urgent Notations
Part 2: The Corporate Beast at Home
4. A Case of Death and Profits
5. Free Market Medicine: A Personal Account
6. Free Market Medicine: More True Stories
Part 3: Cultural Aberrations and Other Oppressions
7. Pedophiles, Popes, Priests, Preachers, and Papa
8. Inequality: 85 Billionaires and the Poorer Half
Part 4: Global Rule and Ruin
