---
product_id: 18471270
title: "Saving Capitalism: For the Many, Not the Few"
price: "B/.54"
currency: PAB
in_stock: true
reviews_count: 8
url: https://www.desertcart.com.pa/products/18471270-saving-capitalism-for-the-many-not-the-few
store_origin: PA
region: Panama
---

# Top 100 in Economic Policy rankings Published 2015, ahead of its time 304 pages of deep economic insight Saving Capitalism: For the Many, Not the Few

**Price:** B/.54
**Availability:** ✅ In Stock

## Summary

> 📈 Unlock the blueprint to saving capitalism — before everyone else does!

## Quick Answers

- **What is this?** Saving Capitalism: For the Many, Not the Few
- **How much does it cost?** B/.54 with free shipping
- **Is it available?** Yes, in stock and ready to ship
- **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.com.pa](https://www.desertcart.com.pa/products/18471270-saving-capitalism-for-the-many-not-the-few)

## Best For

- Customers looking for quality international products

## Why This Product

- Free international shipping included
- Worldwide delivery with tracking
- 15-day hassle-free returns

## Key Features

- • **Hardcover Edition:** Durable, premium binding perfect for your professional bookshelf and repeated reference.
- • **Ahead of the Curve:** Published in 2015, this book predicted political and economic shifts before they hit headlines.
- • **Authoritative Voice:** Robert B. Reich, a renowned economist and former U.S. Secretary of Labor, delivers unmatched expertise.
- • **In-Depth Economic Analysis:** Explore 304 pages of meticulously researched insights on inequality and capitalism's future.
- • **Critical Acclaim & Popularity:** Rated 4.6/5 by over 1,700 readers, a must-have for thought leaders shaping economic discourse.

## Overview

Saving Capitalism: For the Many, Not the Few by Robert B. Reich is a 304-page hardcover book published in 2015 that offers a compelling, data-driven critique of economic inequality in the U.S. Reich argues for pragmatic reforms within capitalism to restore balance and countervailing power, making this a vital read for professionals seeking to understand and influence the future of economic policy.

## Description

Saving Capitalism: For the Many, Not the Few [Reich, Robert B.] on desertcart.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Saving Capitalism: For the Many, Not the Few

Review: Invaluable data on structural inequality, so why the desire to save capitalism? - The book is extremely rich on both the details of inequality in the USA and the legislative enactments that have made it possible. When it comes to what to do about it, Reich speaks of countervailing power (within a capitalist framework, as the title makes clear). He believes that different enactments could indeed reduce inequality without the need to get into left-right arguments about the appropriate size of government or even any debate about a possible shift towards socialism. For example, he says in Chapter 17 ('The Threat to Capitalism') that 'Americans have always tended to choose pragmatism over ideology'... {that} whenever capitalism has before reached points of crisis, we have not opted for communism or fascism or any other grand scheme. Again and again we have saved capitalism from its own excesses by making necessary corrections'. For a book published in 2015, Chapter 19 ('Restoring Countervailing Power') is very percipient, reading ahead of time the populism that propelled Trump to the Presidency in 2016. He is clear that the countervailing power will not come from the Democratic Party until it re-invents itself, reminding us that during the election campaign big business very much favoured Clinton over the anti-establishment stance of most Republican front-runners (including Trump of course). Whether the protests that started the day after Trump's inauguration signal the new beginnings of an effective countervailing power remain to be seen. Quite appropriately, those protests were triggered by Trump's misogynist views. But will these and future broader-based protests be enough to push capitalism back into (???) a progressive populist direction? Or will the clash lead to a bigger government role and an adoption of socialist practice that Reich seems to believe could not be democratic (for reasons that he does not discuss in this book despite his strong support for Bernie Sanders)? Reich provides us a wealth of invaluable information but doesn't help us to identify the (within capitalism) that will change the thirty-year drift towards ever greater inequality and now with Trump, the rush towards fascism.
Review: Upward Predistribution - Excellent read! It's a must if you want to understand the causes of rising inequality... In my opinion robots (the rise of the robots by Martin Ford is another must read) are certainly part of the cause, but an important cause is democracy, and balance of power. It boils down to democracy, and the lack of it! Inequality of income is caused by inequality in political power. This book points out that it's not about "big government" versus "Free market"... There is no such a thing as free market, the market is ruled by laws, the "rules of the game", and laws must exist for the market to work. But the rules of the game today are written in such a way that they create an "upward predistribution", from the poor to the rich. They are making the rich richer at the disadvantage of the poor. Taxes should re-balance things by distributing downward, but not enough! The very basic principle of democracy is that every citizen of the US should have equal political representation regardless of their economic power. The Walmart employee should have the same political power as the Walmart CEO. And that is true when it comes to voting right: they both get one vote. But we know very well that as a practical matter it's not! And this books shows in how many ways that is not true. The vote is a tiny representation of power. Washington lobby money is what really matters when it comes to power. I like this number: the Walmart family is worth as much as the bottom 42% of Americans! That's an enormous unbalance of wealth. Now 51% of the bottom poorest Americans, in theory, in a democracy, is a majority. 51% of people, if they happen to get together and agree, could represent a majority and they could pass any proposition into law, yes that's power! In theory that 51% of Americans could pass a law that for example would redistribute 90% of the money from the top 1% wealthiest Americans to the bottom 51% of Americans. That's easy! I know that's just theoretical, but it's a sign that some sort of civil revolution, more or less aggressive and violent, could happen very soon, if things keep going in the same direction.

## Features

- Author: Reich, Robert B..
- Publisher: Knopf
- Pages: 304
- Publication Date: 2015
- Edition: 1st Edition
- Binding: Hardcover
- MSRP: 26.95
- ISBN13: 9780385350570
- ISBN: 0385350570
- Other ISBN: 9780385350587
- Other ISBN Binding: printisbn
- Language: en

## Technical Specifications

| Specification | Value |
|---------------|-------|
| Best Sellers Rank | #1,283,158 in Books ( See Top 100 in Books ) #88 in Economic Policy #126 in Economic Policy & Development (Books) #490 in Economic Conditions (Books) |
| Customer Reviews | 4.6 out of 5 stars 1,725 Reviews |

## Images

![Saving Capitalism: For the Many, Not the Few - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51ayOZNxV6L.jpg)

## Customer Reviews

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Invaluable data on structural inequality, so why the desire to save capitalism?
*by P***. on January 24, 2017*

The book is extremely rich on both the details of inequality in the USA and the legislative enactments that have made it possible. When it comes to what to do about it, Reich speaks of countervailing power (within a capitalist framework, as the title makes clear). He believes that different enactments could indeed reduce inequality without the need to get into left-right arguments about the appropriate size of government or even any debate about a possible shift towards socialism. For example, he says in Chapter 17 ('The Threat to Capitalism') that 'Americans have always tended to choose pragmatism over ideology'... {that} whenever capitalism has before reached points of crisis, we have not opted for communism or fascism or any other grand scheme. Again and again we have saved capitalism from its own excesses by making necessary corrections'. For a book published in 2015, Chapter 19 ('Restoring Countervailing Power') is very percipient, reading ahead of time the populism that propelled Trump to the Presidency in 2016. He is clear that the countervailing power will not come from the Democratic Party until it re-invents itself, reminding us that during the election campaign big business very much favoured Clinton over the anti-establishment stance of most Republican front-runners (including Trump of course). Whether the protests that started the day after Trump's inauguration signal the new beginnings of an effective countervailing power remain to be seen. Quite appropriately, those protests were triggered by Trump's misogynist views. But will these and future broader-based protests be enough to push capitalism back into (???) a progressive populist direction? Or will the clash lead to a bigger government role and an adoption of socialist practice that Reich seems to believe could not be democratic (for reasons that he does not discuss in this book despite his strong support for Bernie Sanders)? Reich provides us a wealth of invaluable information but doesn't help us to identify the (within capitalism) that will change the thirty-year drift towards ever greater inequality and now with Trump, the rush towards fascism.

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Upward Predistribution
*by L***A on September 8, 2016*

Excellent read! It's a must if you want to understand the causes of rising inequality... In my opinion robots (the rise of the robots by Martin Ford is another must read) are certainly part of the cause, but an important cause is democracy, and balance of power. It boils down to democracy, and the lack of it! Inequality of income is caused by inequality in political power. This book points out that it's not about "big government" versus "Free market"... There is no such a thing as free market, the market is ruled by laws, the "rules of the game", and laws must exist for the market to work. But the rules of the game today are written in such a way that they create an "upward predistribution", from the poor to the rich. They are making the rich richer at the disadvantage of the poor. Taxes should re-balance things by distributing downward, but not enough! The very basic principle of democracy is that every citizen of the US should have equal political representation regardless of their economic power. The Walmart employee should have the same political power as the Walmart CEO. And that is true when it comes to voting right: they both get one vote. But we know very well that as a practical matter it's not! And this books shows in how many ways that is not true. The vote is a tiny representation of power. Washington lobby money is what really matters when it comes to power. I like this number: the Walmart family is worth as much as the bottom 42% of Americans! That's an enormous unbalance of wealth. Now 51% of the bottom poorest Americans, in theory, in a democracy, is a majority. 51% of people, if they happen to get together and agree, could represent a majority and they could pass any proposition into law, yes that's power! In theory that 51% of Americans could pass a law that for example would redistribute 90% of the money from the top 1% wealthiest Americans to the bottom 51% of Americans. That's easy! I know that's just theoretical, but it's a sign that some sort of civil revolution, more or less aggressive and violent, could happen very soon, if things keep going in the same direction.

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ One of many studies found that good teachers increase the average present value of their students’ ...
*by I***N on October 9, 2017*

As I have reaffirmed many times in this column, I hold the opinion that no economic system has grown companies and countries faster and more effectively than Capitalism. However, it hasn’t raised the quality of life for all beneficiaries equally - to say the least. It is this regrettable failing that is addressed by Robert Reich, Chancellor’s Professor at the University of California, Berkeley. He served in the administrations of Presidents Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter, and was Secretary of Labour under President Bill Clinton. Fundamental to Capitalism is the notion of a free market, where people pay for goods or services according to how they value them. What follows logically from this is that what one is paid, reflects one’s worth in the market. If you are paid too little to live on, it is because that is all you are worth, and if you are paid tens of millions you must be worth it. One of many studies found that good teachers increase the average present value of their students’ lifetime earnings by $250,000. Perhaps, if teachers were paid better the profession would attract many more such teachers. “The worth to society of many CEOs, hedge-fund managers, investment bankers, high-frequency traders, lobbyists, and high-end corporate lawyers, may be less than they command in the market. Much of what they do entails taking money out of one set of pockets and putting it into another, in escalating zero-sum activity,” Reich asserts. If Capitalism is so ‘good’, why is it so bad? That is the subject of this profound book, as well as what can reasonably be done about it. To achieve any change to the economy of a society, to make it more equitable, reasonable and humane, requires first a sound understanding of what actually makes it work. To have a ‘free market’, decisions must be made about five critical issues: property, monopoly, contract, bankruptcy, and enforcement. What can be understood as property, and therefore can be owned? Cars? Land? Slaves? A bomb? Intellectual property such as the human genome? Some have been approved and others not. What degree of market power is permissible? How big a control over the market is acceptable? Is a monopoly permissible? What can be bought and sold, and on what terms? Votes? Unsafe food? Babies? Most civilized societies do not allow or enforce contracts that are fraudulent, or that are based on coercion. But how do you understand coercion? Is insisting you buy insurance from me in order to buy something else you want, coercion? What happens when purchasers can’t pay their debts? Do they go to debtor’s prison or declare bankruptcy, and pay all debtors a only portion of what is owed equally? Are employees who have lost their bonus or the rest of their employment contract, seen as debtors? Can homeowners declare bankruptcy and so reduce their obligation on their home loan? Can students declare bankruptcy and be relieved of some of their student loan? How can we make sure no one cheats on any of these rules? We have to rely on decisions about how all these rules are enforced or they will be valueless. What are the priorities of police, inspectors, and prosecutors? Who is entitled to sue whom? Markets, whether a ‘free market’ or a ‘planned’ economy (one that is heavily regulated or controlled by the government, as in socialist or communist countries,) are made by human beings. This is no different to nations, governments, laws, corporations, and sports which are all the products of human beings. These products reflect moral values and judgments, and are not static; they change over time. The rules are made by those with the most power over rule-making, and by changing the rules, the balance can be shifted for or against certain groups. As such, the rules can be skewed to the benefit of a few, rather than the many. Whether in the USA or South Africa, decisions are too often made behind closed doors, in negotiations influenced disproportionately by those with enough resources to be heard. This creates and perpetuates a vicious cycle: economic dominance feeds political power, and political power further enlarges economic dominance. This is most evident in the USA, partly because of the country’s economic sophistication, level of transparency and freedom of expression and democracy. These decisions have real consequences for an economy and for the individual people whose livelihoods are affected by them. In 2000 in the US, for example, labour’s share of nonfarm business income was 63%. In 2013, it was 57%, representing a shift of about $750 billion annually, from those who labour to produce the capital, to those who own the capital. The reality is that government has a pivotal role in designing, organizing, and enforcing the market to begin with. The free market vs. planned market debate clouds the thousands of choices made by legislators, administrators, and judges. It clouds the ongoing task of deciding that can have huge consequences, and that will never cease, so long as there are changes in market conditions, innovations and technological advances. This is the key takeaway from this book. Changing the economic system will not help the many: vigilantly monitoring, influencing, and counterbalancing power, will. This book is a profound account of a very thoughtful and very well informed intellectual. It will shed light on some very troubling issues. Readability Light ----+ Serious Insights High +---- Low Practical High ----+ Low *Ian Mann of Gateways consults internationally on leadership and strategy, and is the author of the recently released ‘Executive Update.

---

## Why Shop on Desertcart?

- 🛒 **Trusted by 1.3+ Million Shoppers** — Serving international shoppers since 2016
- 🌍 **Shop Globally** — Access 737+ million products across 21 categories
- 💰 **No Hidden Fees** — All customs, duties, and taxes included in the price
- 🔄 **15-Day Free Returns** — Hassle-free returns (30 days for PRO members)
- 🔒 **Secure Payments** — Trusted payment options with buyer protection
- ⭐ **TrustPilot Rated 4.5/5** — Based on 8,000+ happy customer reviews

**Shop now:** [https://www.desertcart.com.pa/products/18471270-saving-capitalism-for-the-many-not-the-few](https://www.desertcart.com.pa/products/18471270-saving-capitalism-for-the-many-not-the-few)

---

*Product available on Desertcart Panama*
*Store origin: PA*
*Last updated: 2026-02-01*