Everywhere one travels in the world, people are excited about the new high technology production system. But the global villagers are also perplexed about the new social service needs that seem to accompany the high-tech economy: child care needs for working couples, elder care facilities for infirm senior citizens, burgeoning health care costs accompanying high-tech medicine, nursery school and college tuition costs, and more. There has been a global response to these social service needs, and this book will present and analyse that response. For, a new phenomenon may be emerging, as contradictory as it may appear, a kind of 'caring capitalism' may arise, worldwide. This book explores the various attempts around the globe to create a system of 'caring capitalism' and why nations have been pressured by the 'new middle class' to do so.

Autorentext

Ronald R. Glassman is Professor of Sociology, William Paterson University.

Inhalt

Preface: Why 'Caring' Capitalism? Prologue: The Productive Miracle and the Specific Pattern of Social Problems Engendered by it The High Technology Economy of Abundance: Goods vs. Services The Specific Pattern of Social Problems Linked to the New Middle Class The Working Class Divided: New Middle Class Mobility vs. Underclass Decline The Specific Pattern of Social Problems Engulfing the Global Underclass The Social Problems of the New Upper Class The Welfare State for the Rich The Welfare State: Expansions, Cutbacks, and Co-Payments The Rising Cost of Services in High Tech Societies and Revenue Generating Mechanisms Why Transfer Payments are Necessary in High Tech Industrial Capitalist Societies The Free Market and Morality Religious and Secular Curbs on the Selfishness and Amorality of the Market Why Care? Notes Index