14.+Assignments+for+week+of+May+22+TQ+14

ASSIGNMENTS FOR WEEK OF MAY 22 Due Monday, May 23 at 6 p.m. 1. //Supercapitalism: The Transformation of Business, Democracy, and Everyday Life// by Robert B. Reich. Knopf, New York, 2007. There are four excerpts from this book, the introduction ('The Paradox'), pages 126-129, pages 168-173, and Chapter 6 ('A Citizen's Guide to Supercapitalism'). Your assignment last week included pages 168-173. If you submitted a takeaway for it last week, you need only do a takeaway for each of the other three sections (and a question.) If you did NOT submit a takeaway last week, you should do a takeaway for each of the four sections (and a question.) Robert Reich, by the way, was the Secretary of Labor under President Clinton. THREE TAKEAWAYS if you did last week's assignment and ONE QUESTION FOUR TAKEAWAYS if you did not do last week's assignment and ONE QUESTION

2. "Capitalism's Core: Advancing beyond Today's Capitalism", Chapter 9 of //The Bridge at the End of the World: Capitalism, the Environment and Crossing from Crisis to Sustainability// by James Gustave Speth. Caravan Books, Yale University Press, New Haven, 2008. TWO TAKEAWAYS and ONE QUESTION

3. Watch this video, Citizens United vs. FEC: http://storyofstuff.org/citizensunited ONE TAKEAWAY and ONE QUESTION (You can take a look at the original video, The Story of Stuff, or other shorter pieces on the website for your own edification.)

FINAL CONCEPT PAPER DUE Wednesday June 1 (500 words) Discuss an ethical issue that interested you in our study of the Environment/ Climate change or Capitalism.

As promised, below is the definition of capitalism that we read in class:

A working definition of capitalism is "a system in which the production and distribution of goods is entrust e d primarily to the market mechanism, based on private ownership of property, and on exchange between legally free individuals." Notice that this definition is not pur e ly "economic," for "private" property and legally free individuals exist only because there are political mechanisms that protect individuals from having their persons and property seized by others. From: "The Mind and the Market" by Jerry Z. Muller: Alfred A. Knopf 2002, page xvii.