Winners Take All - Anand Giridharadas

Winners Take All

By Anand Giridharadas

  • Release Date: 2018-08-28
  • Genre: Social Science
Score: 4.5
4.5
From 166 Ratings

Description

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER The groundbreaking investigation of how the global elite's efforts to "change the world" preserve the status quo and obscure their role in causing the problems they later seek to solve. An essential read for understanding some of the egregious abuses of power that dominate today’s news.

"Impassioned.... Entertaining reading.” The Washington Post


Anand Giridharadas takes us into the inner sanctums of a new gilded age, where the rich and powerful fight for equality and justice any way they can—except ways that threaten the social order and their position atop it. They rebrand themselves as saviors of the poor; they lavishly reward “thought leaders” who redefine “change” in ways that preserve the status quo; and they constantly seek to do more good, but never less harm.  
  
Giridharadas asks hard questions: Why, for example, should our gravest problems be solved by the unelected upper crust instead of the public institutions it erodes by lobbying and dodging taxes? His groundbreaking investigation has already forced a great, sorely needed reckoning among the world’s wealthiest and those they hover above, and it points toward an answer: Rather than rely on scraps from the winners, we must take on the grueling democratic work of building more robust, egalitarian institutions and truly changing the world—a call to action for elites and everyday citizens alike.

Reviews

  • Winners Take All

    5
    By PalatableDinner
    Highly recommend people read this well written, informative, and transparent book that examines the ways in which the ultra rich market and rationalize maintaining the capitalist culture and systems that only truly benefit a few while oppressing the rest. It highlights the importance of voting for legislations and people, both locally and nationally, who acknowledge and aim to fix the problems in our systems and democracy in meaningful ways rather than abandon it in favor of workarounds that only treat symptoms and empower plutocrats.
  • A necessary read for concerned citizens

    5
    By Woody_15
    Giridharadas articulates an opinion that is all too rarely expressed these days. He rejects the consensus view of philanthropists being the saviors for society, and in fact indicts them for being, at best, complicit in, and at worst, the cause of our society’s problems. For example, creating job insecurity by cutting wages and automating jobs, disenfranchising women by lobbying against legislation mandating maternity leave. While sympathetic to his interviewees, who are mostly the “doing good by doing well” type, he is still able to critique them in a pointed way. A great read, though a bit repetitive if I’m being honest. And for us to stop looking to wealthy philanthropists to solve our problems, we need government to step up and offer solutions. I wish Giridharadas would have spent more time addressing this question of how exactly to do this. But what he does address, he does so very well. I think this is a necessary
  • I thought this was an audiobook. Bought it twice. Hopeful for refund.

    1
    By kristina gr 19
    See above. Please help
  • Anand Giridharadas shows how winners really take all

    5
    By SteveC0613
    I saw the author interviewed on a Bay Area PBS station. He was articulate and insightful, so I immediately downloaded the book. This is an excellent read for anyone interested in economic social justice and the origin, evolution and sustaining power of the current system.