A myth-shattering investigation of the true cost of America's passion for finding a better bargain
From the shuttered factories of the Rust Belt to the strip malls of the Sun Belt-and almost everywhere in between-America has been transformed by its relentless fixation on low price. This pervasive yet little- examined obsession with bargains is arguably the most powerful and devastating market force of our time, having fueled an excess of consumerism that blights our landscapes, escalates personal debt, lowers our standard of living, and even skews of our concept of time.
Spotlighting the peculiar forces that drove Americans away from quality, durability, and craftsmanship and towards quantity, quantity, and more quantity, Ellen Ruppel Shell traces the rise of the bargain through our current big-box profusion to expose the astronomically high cost of cheap.
- ISBN10 1101347430
- ISBN13 9781101347430
- Publish Date 2 July 2009
- Publish Status Active
- Publish Country US
- Imprint Penguin Press
- Format eBook
- Language English