The Capitalism Delusion

by Bob Ellis

In the free market we trust.
Look where that's got us.

With our economy based upon money as illusory as God's love, Bob Ellis calls time on free market fundamentalism.

We put our faith in a system that awards do-nothing CEOs with millions as their companies collapse and provoke a global crisis. We judge corporate success on the number of sackings, fund the privatisation of essential services with public money and favour cheap goods discounted by the loss of our jobs. We sign up for wars in which capitalism makes a killing.

Continuing from his classic dissection of economic rationalism, First Abolish the Customer, Ellis presents 345 arguments challenging the free market orthodoxy with ferocious intelligence and wit. His free-flowing meditation on the gross inequalities in our society contends that we are irresponsibly fixated on the sale of goods, instead of on delivering jobs that put money into people's hands. Skewering the legacies of Thatcherism, he proposes some radically simple remedies, including restoring tariffs, investing in country towns and restricting corporate salaries.

The Capitalism Delusion is vintage Ellis: exasperated, impolite and inspiring.

Genres: Economics

306 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2009

About the author

Robert James "Bob" Ellis (10 May 1942 – 3 April 2016[1]) was an Australian writer, journalist, filmmaker and political commentator. He was a student at the University of Sydney at the same time as other notable Australians including Clive James, Germaine Greer, Les Murray, John Bell, Ken Horler and Mungo McCallum. He lived in Sydney with the author and screenwriter Anne Brooksbank; they had three children.

Plays

The Legend of King O'Malley (1970) with Michael Boddy
Big Brother Dragon (1971) with Michael Boddy
Duke of Edinburgh Assassinated or The Vindication of Henry Parkes (1971) with Dick Hall
The Francis James Dossier (1973) – later The James Dossier (1975) – musical about Francis James
Whitlam Days (1975)
Down Under (1976) with Anne Brooksbank
A Very Good Year (1980)
Man, the musical (1990s) book and lyrics with Denny Lawrence, music by Chris Neal
A Local Man: A Play about Ben Chifley (2004) with Robin McLachlan
Shakespeare in Italy (2012) with Denny Lawrence
Intimate Strangers (unproduced) with Denny Lawrence

Screenplays

Newsfront (1978) with Anne Brooksbank
Fatty Finn (1980)
Maybe This Time (1980) with Anne Brooksbank
Goodbye Paradise (1983) with Denny Lawrence
Man of Flowers (1983) with Paul Cox
The Winds of Jarrah (1983)
My First Wife (1984) with Paul Cox
Unfinished Business (1985) – also directed
Top Kid (1985) (TV) with John Hepworth
The Paper Boy (1985) (TV) with John Hepworth
Cactus (1986) with Paul Cox
The Gilles Republic (1986) (TV)
Bullseye (1987)
Perhaps Love (1987) (TV)
True Believers (1988) (TV)
Warm Nights on a Slow Moving Train (1988) – also directed
Gilles and Company (1992) (TV)
Dreaming of Lords (1993) with Ernie Dingo – also directed
The Nostradamus Kid (1993) – also directed
Ebbtide (1994)
Wildside (1998) Episode 24
Bastards from the Bush, A Journey with Bob Ellis and Les Murray (1998) – documentary
Infamous Victory: Ben Chifley's Battle for Coal (2008) – documentary

Novels

Mad Dog Morgan (1976) – novelisation of film with Anne Brooksbank
Fatty Finn (1980) – based on his film script
Top Kid (1985) – novelisation with John Hepworth of his script
The Paper Boy (1985) -novelisation with John Hepworth of his script
The Hewson tapes : a secret history, perhaps, of our times (1993) – fictionalised diary of John Hewson
The Season (1996) – with Roy Masters

Non-fiction

The Things We Did Last Summer: An Election Journal – account of the Australian federal election, 1983
Two weeks in another country : a journal of the 1983 British election – account of the United Kingdom general election, 1983
Letters to the Future (1987) – collection of writings from 1969–87
The Inessential Ellis (1992) – collection of writings
Goodbye Jerusalem : night thoughts of a Labor outsider (1997) – writings centred on the history of the Australian Labor Party up to the Australian federal election, 1996
First abolish the customer: 202 arguments against economic rationalism (1998)
So it goes : essays, broadcasts, speeches 1987–1999 (1999)
Goodbye Babylon : further journeys in time and politics (2002)
Night thoughts in time of war (2004)
And so it went: night thoughts in a year of change (2009) – events around the Australian federal election, 2007
The capitalism delusion : how global economics wrecked everything and what to do about it (2009)
One hundred days of summer : how we got to where we are (2010)
Suddenly, last winter : an election diary (2010) – diary of the Australian federal election, 2010

Acting

I Own the Racecourse (1985) – film
The Human Behan (1995–96) – play
Waiting for Godot (2000) – play

Reviews

[Al Bità · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nowadays, the understanding that Capitalism is the be-all and end-all of economics is suffering a beating. Unfettered Capitalism felt it could do whatever it wanted, and economic rationalists and fundamentalists encouraged the view. The result has been, and will continue to be, disastrous. Books like this one are a useful and necessary antidote against this belief in the salvific quality of unfettered Capitalism.

Those familiar with Bob Ellis' writing will find much to further to enjoy in this his latest outing. (Is 'enjoy' the correct word to use here?) Ellis pulls no punches. Capitalism is dirty, murderous, greedy, destructive, etc. How come we have all been fooled by it for so long? Ellis cleverly uses the very 'virtues' economic fundamentalists claim to justify their actions to show that their results are far from their claims.

Whether you agree or not with Ellis' arguments, they are many and varied, and everywhere. The issues he raises need to be examined and discussed dispassionately by all of us. One thing is certain: unfettered capitalism and rampant economic fundamentalists need to be curtailed. Ellis presents a number of ways he thinks we could explore this more usefully. With any luck, we will all be the better off for it.

[Pawel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Perfect for lay capitalists like me.

[Fiona Ottley · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very entertaining rant. Some of his suggestions have merit.

[Londi The Leo · Rating 3 out of 5]

In an update I made at the beginning of reading this book I commented that it reads like a rant- this is the case right till the end. I have never heard Bob Ellis speak, nor do I know what he looks like but my mind automatically generated this image of a white-haired politics/history professor who looks like a mix between Bernie Sanders and Zizek. All quirky affectations included. The author doesn’t offer a detailed criticism or explanation of what he calls the capitalism delusion’ so much as he uses various examples of market fundamentalism gone wild to make his argument, and a good argument it is- if the manner in which it is made doesn’t bother you too much.

I agree with the sentiments of the book, hell I knew that I would just by reading the title, but it reads really ‘boomerish’ in tone- does that make sense? The author yearns for bygone days when young men could easily be employed as bus conductors and train ticket collectors so they could cultivate the ‘habit of work’ and avoid becoming crack addicts- and he isn’t wrong but it is so hard to imagine us going back, aren’t we too far gone now to entertain these ideas? Reading that part about these jobs that have become extinct thanks to global economics made me, a South African, think that even if we could bring them back I don’t believe it could protect young people from the scourge of drug abuse. We have taxi and bus conductors actually, working specifically in the private sector, and they are mostly drug addicts that can be paid as little as possible just so that they can get their fix after they knock-off work. I am not proffering this taxi conductor example as an argument against his proposal even, maybe I am just disillusioned? I understand that changing the status quo requires a hopeful outlook, which I think the author has just by writing a book like this. Change will take more than just agreeing with left-leaning ideas, it is going to take us putting up a fight against the greed (and exultation of it) that exists in our societies, and books like this are a step in that direction, an attempt, and for that this work is important.
In writing this review I have tried to avoid any economic jargon, although terms like ‘economic globalisation’, ‘market fundamentalism’, ‘neo-liberalism’, ‘protectionism’, ‘privatisation’ etc. are explored and explained, I don’t feel comfortable enough in my understanding of them to use on goodreads- which is kind of what I was hoping this book would help with. If you are also looking for a primer on the ideas I have mentioned above, this book won’t help so much as point you in the right direction- I now am looking forward to reading more on privatisation so any recommendations will be greatly appreciated.

“Which brings me to the crux, the nub of the argument against global economics… which is that jobs go overseas (call-centre jobs for instance, aircraft mechanic jobs for instance) and the hedge funds can go overseas and CEOs like Sol Trujillo, global capitalist, but people can’t.
If they try to, their boats are turned back and they drown off Gibraltar. Or the Australian navy looks the other way while three hundred and fifty-three of them drown in the Arafura Sea.
Or they die of thirst in the deserts north of the Rio Grande, or are turned into fearful slaves by the people smugglers who take them in refrigerator trucks to the meat works of Washington State.
Or they’re turned back by armed guards when they try to cross from Gaza into Egypt. Or they’re frozen to death in panel vans on their way way from China to England.
How can global economics be global if money can move, and products, and armaments, and cluster-bombs across borders and oceans and people can’t?
The answer that people thieve jobs and products is rubbish.
Because cheap T-shirts do. And cheap foreign cars do. Or am I wrong?”

[Graham Catt · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ellis’s scattershot approach to the subject matter means that he often misses the mark. Nevertheless, there is enough good and thought-provoking material here to make the book a worthwhile read.

However, if you want a more thorough, carefully argued critique of the failings of Capitalism (Or the Neoliberalist version, to be precise) you should look elsewhere.

[Almustafa Couch · Rating 5 out of 5]

A bloody good read. Almost every section ended with a question. It contained enough humour to not be a economics text. I would recommend this book to everyone.

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is just one long rant. Bob Ellis is angry. Angry at capitalism, angry at greed, and angry at those governments who seem to be letting greedy capitalists do as they wish. While Ellis' way is too extreme for me, the evidence he gives is nevertheless compelling. Strip away the strong rhetoric (and it sure the hell is strong) and what we have is a passionate plea for 'social democracy'.

I do wonder if there is some madness in Ellis' method though. Does he really believe that "capitalism is about sacking people, and killing people, and hurting people, and tormenting people with the possibility of imminent poverty, and leaving them when the big bust comes to fend for themselves"?

But, since there is something captivating about reading someone so set in their views that they are willing to recklessly villainise others, I found myself really liking 'The Capitalism Delusion'. It is so hard to find a cranky lefty these days. Perhaps they need to be loud to be heard. And deep down all he seems to want is a better world for all:

"Social democracy has proved it is not an illusion. Though agnostic, and bureaucratic, and nit-picking, and complex in its many incarnations, it is merciful at its heart"

And who is against mercy?

[gekko100 · Rating 3 out of 5]

this book is basically 300 pages of ranting and railing against the problems of unfettered capitalism. many of his specific grievances (say about 30% or so) seem exaggerated or unevenly argued, and would not stand up to cold, sober debating. However, the remaining two-thirds are points against which it would be much harder for a die-hard capitalist to brush off, and about which we should be concerned (and angry, as the author clearly is).

Similarly, some of the suggestions for change that he crams into the final few chapters are fanciful at best. But some seem very reasonable, for example: limiting the size and ubiquity of corporations (why should there be more than, say, 5 McDonalds outlets in any given city?); banning (or more realistically, curtailing) advertising which primarily serves the interests of these large multinationals. There are others out there making similar suggestions (Clive Hamilton for instance) and I've yet to hear any believable explanation as to why they wouldn't make the world a better place.

Overall I found it to be stirring, invigorating reading and it is a book that should be slapped across the face of all young gordon gekko wannabes who are going to business school and buying into the global capitalism delusion.