When Corporations Rule the World, 3rd Edition

CHAPTER 20People with No Place

We must find new lands from which we can easily obtain raw materials and at the same time exploit the cheap slave labour that is available from the natives of the colonies. The colonies would also provide a dumping ground for the surplus goods produced in our factories.

—CECIL RHODES, the “founder” of Rhodesia

Those of us who have grown up in societies in which survival depends on money easily accept this dependence as a natural part of the human condition. To fully appreciate the extent to which this dependence is a largely artificial condition, we must revisit earlier societies in which relationships were defined by enduring family and community ties.

Although we now tend to associate pre-monetized societies with ...