Why is television so awful? Why do drug companies hide unfavourable test results? Why do automakers market unsafe cars? Why is our environment poisoning us? Why is our food so unhealthy? Why are we working sixty-hour weeks? Greed, Inc. places the blame for much of what ails contemporary society at the doorstep of a single institution -- the modern publicly traded business corporation. We have become an uncaring society because the corporate ethos that informs virtually everything in our culture is uniquely and implacably selfish. The corporation exists for one purpose only: to make a profit. And such an objective trumps all others. Nothing else matters. This book traces the rise of the corporation from the Rationalist social engineering of the 18th century — as well as the parallel triumph of moral relativism, consumerism, enterprise culture, and other dominant value systems of our time. It shows how a series of psychological and philosophical misconceptions institutionalized greed and self-serving behaviour as a good thing for society. Indeed the origins of corporate culture seem in retrospect so preposterous as to defy belief — and yet these misconceived values now dominate our lives. Because of these notions of selfishness, we have arrived at a time when we seem at odds with almost everything around us.

Greed, Inc. is a groundbreaking book in that it reveals the roots of this social discontent for the first time through the lens of moral philosophy. Anybody who cares about our quality of life and the very survival of humanity will need to read this book.

Ranked among Canada's leading literary journalists, Wade Rowland is the author of more than a dozen non-fiction books including Ockham's Razor, Greed, Inc., and Saving the CBC. He spent many years in television news production at the network level and has held senior management roles at both CTV and CBC, where he was also senior producer of the consumer affairs program Marketplace. Rowland holds a Ph.D. in Communication and Culture and is currently Associate Professor at York University. Born in Montreal, he grew up in Regina and Winnipeg and currently lives in rural Port Hope, Ontario, with his wife Christine Collie Rowland.

Wade Rowland's profile page

...Mr. Rowland in his book combines broad research, intellectuality and, what must be to his academic critic, enviable clarity.

National Post

In trying to understand the aberrant immoral behaviour of his former corporate colleagues, Wade Rowland has brilliantly excavated the ideological foundations of today's business corporation, revealing an inherently inhuman institution inimical to any kind of morality.

David F. Noble, author of "America by Design" and "Beyond the Promised Land"

Timely and important. No anti-capitalist rant, "Greed, Inc." is a wise book by a thinker and writer of great good sense and clarity. Wade Rowland shows how we have allowed the giant corporation to run amok amongst us, and offers ways to tame the beast and re-hitch it to the public good. All who are worried about the mounting damage done to society and nature in the name of profit should read "Greed, Inc." without delay.

Ronald Wright, author of "A Short History of Progress"