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A recent book review of "Supercapitalism," by former labor secretary of the Clinton Administration, Robert Reich, details how the gigantic army of 140 million laborers has "morphed into a nation of consumers and investors, rather than citizens."

It was during what Mr. Reich aptly calls the Not Quite Golden Age, from 1945 to 1975, that America prospered, income inequality fell and most people trusted in government. Then, thanks to technologies like shipping containers and the Web, companies suddenly confronted brutal competition. After that, there was no going back.

Consumers got more choice and lower prices, while the people on Main Street became investors. Together, newly powerful shoppers and shareholders of this supercapitalism drove a decline in labor unions and a frenzy by corporations desperate to buy some market advantage in Washington.

"You and I are complicit," Mr. Reich writes. Our "great deals" are somebody else's lower pay and some corporation's lobbying.

And from Publisher's Weekly:

Reich's proposals are anything but knee-jerk liberal: he calls for abolishing the corporate income tax and labels the corporate social responsibility movement distracting and even counterproductive. As in 2004's Reason, Reich exhibits perhaps too much confidence in Americans' ability to think and act in their own best interests. But he refuses to shift blame for corporations' dominance to the usual suspects, instead pointing a finger at consumers like you and me who want better deals, and from investors like us who want better returns, he writes. Provocatively argued, this book could help begin a necessary national conversation.

A grand national conversation is exactly what we need as corporations play a larger and larger role in our lives. Remember, we vote everyday every time we spend money.

Think about that next time you pull your wallet out!

postscript: Where does Wal-mart lay in this debate? How much would they have to lift their prices if they decided to pay an extra $2 or $3 per single clerk, greeter, and stocker in the chain? Kevin Drum, over at The Washington Monthly, believes it would be a minimal 2%. Does that sound right?

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