In Consumed: How Markets Corrupt Children, Infantilize Adults, and Swallow Citizens Whole, author Benjamin Barber follows up on issues he raised in his 2005 book Jihad vs. McWorld, particularly the connection between culture and the ugly, dangerous side of capitalism. According to Barber, a professor of political philosophy at the University of Maryland, contemporary consumer…

The new running shoes my UPS guy delivered a couple weeks ago were $119.99. A screaming good deal given their original $160 retail price, right? Ellen Ruppel Shell’s Cheap: The High Cost of Discount Culture forced me to reconsider a lot of things – including the fact that I have no earthly idea what a…