The Profiteers

How Business Privatizes Profits and Socializes Costs

By: Christopher Marquis

Narrated by: Simon Vance, Christopher Marquis

An exposé of how society pays for corporations' "free lunch" and the cost of environmental damage, low wages, systemic discrimination, and cheap goods.

In an age when business leaders solemnly profess dedication to principles of environmental and social justice, Christopher Marquis’s provocative investigation into the real costs of doing business reveals the way that leaders of the corporate world gaslight to evade responsibilities by privatizing profits and socializing costs. “Who pays?” for the resulting climate and environmental damage, racism, low wages, and cheap goods: the average citizen and the taxpayer.

By bringing to light ideas that today are on the fringe but rapidly making their way into the mainstream, Marquis outlines a new regenerative paradigm for business in society. He tells of a group of pioneers trying to not just reform but transform the way business is conducted all over the world. By taking novel actions to reimagine business operations in responsible ways, minimize their negative impacts, and create new ways for business to properly absorb their hidden costs, these leaders provide blueprints to move the needle on vexing social and environmental issues.

What’s in it for leaders of the corporate world? The model of reform presented provides clear guidance on how to get ahead of the curve as an emerging economic order is formed. No business can lead from the front if it is morally-backward looking. History has shown time and again that those who get out in front of emerging changes in our social and environmental landscape protect themselves from inevitable eclipse.

©2024 Christopher Marquis (P)2024 PublicAffairs

Critic reviews

“Powerful, passionate, and persuasive. Christopher Marquis argues that business is both a principal cause of our current troubles and perhaps the most important cure. Drawing on fresh examples, he demonstrates both how business has profited from destroying the natural world and the structure of our societies, and how business leaders—working in concert with investors and other key stakeholders—can be powerful agents of change.”—Rebecca Henderson, McArthur University Professor, Harvard University

“A profound call to action for businesses to take responsibility for their environmental and social footprints. The Profiteers shows us that a better business model isn’t just possible, it’s imperative.”—Paul Hawken, cofounder, Smith & Hawken, and author of Regeneration

“Timely and full of sharp insight on the devastating impacts of business as we’ve known it—a critical read for anyone who wants to understand how the deep design of business itself can and must be transformed.”—Kate Raworth, author of Doughnut Economics