The price of a bargain : the quest for cheap and the death of globalization
Title:
The price of a bargain : the quest for cheap and the death of globalization
Personal Author EPSB:
Summary:
A brilliant investigation into the true cost of our bargain economy - and the end of consumerism as we know it. Ours is the age of discount: we want more, cheaper, better. But the result is low wages, urban blight, environmental damage, labour abuses, a cookie-cutter model of progress, and now an international economic crisis. With an eye for documentary storytelling and investigative detail, Gordon Laird traces the bargain from its humble dollar-store origins to its place as global juggernaut. From Albertaś tar sands to Chinaś factories, from Las Vegas to the Arctic Circle, a single question emerges: how will we survive the bargain?
Year Published:
2009-2010
Physical Description:
347 p. : ill. ; 23 cm.
Contents:
Introduction: Black Friday, 2008 -- PART I: LANDSCAPES OF PLENTY - The Bargaineers: Fear and housewares in Las Vegas -- Quantum cheap: Progress is price destruction -- PART II: OUT OF THE BARGAIN BASEMENT - China crisis: The end of cheap labour -- Container trade: Cargo cults of the twenty-first century -- All is plastic: The small world of hydrocarbons -- We, the resource: Journeys to the end of cheap -- PART III: Shock Therapy: Can high prices save us?
ISBN:
9780771046070
Publisher:
Toronto : Emblem Editions, 2010, c2009.
