I have 2. The People's Republic of Walmart is one. Maybe I feel this way because I work in the industry and I'm a little familiar with central planning techniques... but I just thought it was all fluff with little substance. I felt like more than one chapter was just "Walmart and Amazon do central planning so it's possible" without getting into a lot of the details. Very little about the nuts and bolts of central planning. Throw in a good dose of anti-Stalinism when the man oversaw successful central planning... I just didn't get anything out of it. Might be OK if you want a real basic introduction behind the ideas of planning but honestly I bet like 95% of you already know more about it than you realize.

And I love Graeber but jeez, I couldn't even finish Bullshit Jobs. It felt like a good article that was blown out into a book. Maybe my expectations were too high but I felt like he spent way too many pages getting into minutiae about what is/isn't a bullshit job without actually making a broader point.

  • HornyOnMain
    ·
    2 years ago

    Capitalist Realism raises a load of good points but then stuffs in a load of anti-communist stuff and just random incomprehensible bullshit.

    I was talking to someone about it at a bar and she said “it should either be a third of it’s length so only the actually useful bits are in it, or three times longer so it can properly justify these ideas”

    • duderium [he/him]
      ·
      2 years ago

      I read this entire book a few years ago and can't remember a single word of it besides its main point, that capitalism is considered the only realistic thing to do.

      • HornyOnMain
        ·
        2 years ago

        It was my best friend’s 21st and he invited a hot anarchist girl that I hit it off pretty well with, so we got to talking about music and theory

    • panopticon [comrade/them]
      ·
      2 years ago

      He rambles on about his students a bit too much, IMO. Write what you know, I guess.