13.+Assignments+for+week+of+May+15


 * 13. Assignments for week of May 15**

Takeaways and questions are due Monday, May 16 at 6 p.m.

PLEASE READ THESE INSTRUCTIONS CAREFULLY AS THERE ARE SOME CHANGES.

ONE TAKEAWAY TWO TAKEAWAYS and ONE QUESTION Note: Patel refers to //Homo Economicus// ("Economic Man"). It was John Stuart Mill who proposed the idea that the study of Political Economy should assume that people are rational actors working in their own best interest. Even Mill noted that this was problematical in its over-simplification, but it has been that basis of much theorizing in the field of economics.
 * 1**. Excerpts from Adam Smith's //The Wealth of Nations// (1776): [[file:Adam Smith2.doc]]
 * 2**. Chapter 3 from //The Value of Nothing//, by Raj Patel. Picador, New York, 2009: [[file:Patel Value of Nothing Chap 3.pdf]]


 * 3**. The Whole Foods Debate ("Rethinking the Social Responsibility of Business"): an exchange between the founder of Whole Foods (John Mackey), one of the most prominent economists of the late 20th century (Milton Friedman), and a man whose business is based on laissez-faire capitalism (T.J. Rodgers). [[file:Whole Food Debate Text(1).doc]]
 * INSTEAD OF TAKEAWAYS, ANSWER THE QUESTIONS ON THIS PAGE:** [[file:Capitalism Reading Questions.docx]]

ONE TAKEAWAY and ONE QUESTION
 * 4**. **Here is a new reading!:** A few pages from //Supercapitalism: The Transformation of Business, Democracy, and Everyday Life// by Robert B. Reich. Knopf, New York, 2007.

ONE TAKEAWAY and ONE QUESTION
 * 5**. "The Bourgeois Virtues", by Deirdre McCloskey. //The New York Times,// July 6, 2006. I think this is the first chapter of her book of the same name.

ONE TAKEAWAY and ONE QUESTION
 * 6.** "Mean or Green: Wal-Mart's Organic Turn Divides the Movement", by Liza Featherstone. //The Nation//, September 11, 2006. [[file:Mean or Green WalMart.pdf]]

You do NOT have to read the handout, "The Inflection is Near?" - but it's only two pages, so why not anyway!