Free Market Missionaries : The Corporate Manipulation of Community Values

In her recent book Suiting Themselves, bestselling author Sharon Beder exposed how the global corporate elite have brazenly rewritten the rules of the global economy to line their pockets. In this new book she trains her sights on the insidious underbelly of this global trend to show how they have also orchestrated a mass propaganda campaign to manipulate community values and convince us that their interest - co-opting and controlling all of us in the name of the free market - is in our interest. During the 20th century, business associations coordinated mass propaganda campaigns combining 20th century American PR methods with revitalized free market ideology from 18th century Europe. The aim was to persuade people to eschew their own power as workers and citizens, and forego their democratic power to restrain and regulate business activity. Sophisticated corporate-funded think tanks augmented these campaigns in the 1970s and 1980s, promoting free enterprise and business-friendly policies. These ?free market missionaries? now seek to change individual and institutional values through bolder strategies such as expanding share ownership and manipulating wider public concerns. In each case the goal is the same: the triumph of business values over community values. Beder?s is an intellectual call to arms: challenge the ideology of the free market missionaries or be converted to it. Earthscan Publications Ltd. Contents 6 List of Boxes, Figures and Tables 8 List of Acronyms and Abbreviations 9 Acknowledgements 12 Chapter 1 The Free Market Gospel 14 Public relations 15 Political mobilization 17 Free market scriptures 19 Notes 22 Chapter 2 Promoting Business Values 26 National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) 27 The free market message 33 Countering government regulation and the unions 36 Notes 39 Chapter 3 Advertising Free Enterprise 42 The role of advertisers and pollsters 43 The Advertising Council campaign 45 Auxiliary campaigns 48 Economic 'illiteracy' 52 Notes 55 Chapter 4 Free Market ‘Education’ 58 Proliferating Free market associations 60 School economics education 62 Employee economic education 67 Outcomes 72 Notes 73 Chapter 5 Economic ‘Education’ in the 1970s 76 The Advertising Council campaign 78 Complementary campaigns 82 Universities 85 Outcomes 87 Notes 88 Chapter 6 Exporting Free Market Education 92 Economic education in Australia 94 Enterprise Australia 98 Universities 102 Notes 103 Chapter 7 Pro-Business Policies as Ideology 106 Monetarism and the natural rate of unemployment 110 Supply-side voodoo 113 Contestability theory 115 Public choice theory 116 Notes 119 Chapter 8 Disseminating Pro-Business Policies 122 UK think tanks 124 US think tanks 128 Mechanisms of influence 132 Notes 135 Chapter 9 Think Tanks Down Under 140 Hatching economic rationalism 143 Proliferating think tanks 145 Linkages and overlaps 149 Notes 152 Chapter 10 Economic Advisers 158 The Washington Consensus and structural adjustment 161 Advisers in New Zealand 165 Advisers in Australia 168 Outcomes 176 Notes 178 Chapter 11 People’s Capitalism 184 Thinking like capitalists 186 Employee share ownership 190 Pension funds and social security 194 Notes 199 Chapter 12 Shareholder Democracy 204 'Public' ownership 206 The reality of share ownership 210 School education 215 Notes 217 Chapter 13 Fiddling with Kiddy Minds 222 Enterprise education 223 Economic literacy 227 Economic education standards 232 Other economic literacy programmes 234 Notes 238 Chapter 14 Conclusion 242 Notes 244 Bibliography 246 Index 264 ISBN-13:,9781844073344 "In her recent book Suiting Themselves, bestselling author Sharon Beder exposed how the global corporate elite have brazenly rewritten the rules of the global economy to line their pockets. In this new book she trains her sights on the insidious underbelly of this global trend to show how they have also orchestrated a mass propaganda campaign to manipulate community values and convince us that their interest - co-opting and controlling all of us in the name of the free market - is in our interest."--Jacket The global corporate elite have rewritten the rules of the global economy to line their pockets. This book offers insights on the insidious underbelly of this global trend to show how they have also orchestrated a mass propaganda campaign to manipulate community values and convince us that their interest is in our interest.