The Myth of Choice_ Personal Responsibility in a World of Limits - Kent Greenfield [97]
Epigraphs: WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE, THE TAMING OF THE SHREW, Act I, Scene 1, lines 138–39 (George Lyman Kittredge, ed., The Complete Works of Shakespeare, 1936). James Baldwin, The Black Boy Looks at the White Boy, ESQUIRE (May 1961).
1. For the figure of 45,000 grocery store items, see SHEENA IYENGAR, THE ART OF CHOOSING 187 (2010); for Coca-Cola products (in all, more than three thousand around the world), see company website, http://www.thecoca-colacompany.com/brands/product_list_c.html.
2. See http://www.pet-super-store.com/pet-supplies/orthopedic-dog-beds (dog beds); http://www.blavish.com/treadmill-just-for-the-kids (treadmill for children); http://www.skymall.com/shopping/detail.htm?pid=102727481&c=10441 (compass).
3. The average earnings for the top twenty-five hedge fund managers in 2008 was $464 million. See David Walker, $2.5 Billion in Pay Makes Simons Hedge Fund World’s Top Earner, available at http://blogs.wsj.com/deals/2009/03/25/the-hedge-fund-worlds-top-2008-earner-james-simons/tab/print. Compared to hedge fund managers, quarterbacks in the National Football League do not earn so much. In 2009, the quarterback with the highest base salary in the NFL was Peyton Manning, who earned $14 million. With bonuses, the highest-paid quarterback in the NFL was actually Jay Cutler of the Bears, who earned a total compensation of over $22 million. See USA Today Salaries Database, available at http://content.usatoday.com/sports/football/nfl/salaries/playersbyposition.aspx?pos=144. In the summer of 2010, Tom Brady of the New England Patriots signed a new contract that promised him $72 million over four years, making him the highest-paid player in the NFL. See Tom Brady Signs Extension, ESPN.com, available at http://sports.espn.go.com/boston/nfl/news/story?id=5552561.
4. One of the leading critics of the conventional wisdom about markets, particularly securities markets, is Lawrence Mitchell. See, for example, Lawrence E. Mitchell, Who Needs the Stock Market?, 1 ACCOUNTING, ECONOMICS AND LAW—A CONVIVIUM (2010); Lawrence E. Mitchell, The Morals of the Marketplace, 20 STAN. L. & POL. REV. 171 (2009); Lawrence E. Mitchell, Fairness and Efficiency (of What?), 2 BERKELEY BUS. L. J. 153 (2005); LAWRENCE E. MITCHELL, CORPORATE IRRESPONSIBILITY: AMERICA’S NEWEST EXPORT (2001); LAWRENCE E. MITCHELL, STACKED DECK (1998).
5. “Sixteen Tons,” words and music by Merle Travis, copyright © 1947 (renewed) Merle’s Girls Music, all rights administered by Warner-Tamerlane Publishing Corp. All rights reserved; used by permission. For more history of the song, see ACE COLLINS, THE STORIES BEHIND COUNTRY MUSIC’S ALL-TIME GREATEST: 100 SONGS 91–93 (1996).
6. See generally 29 C.F.R. § 531.34 and AMJUR LABOR § 3093 Scrip.
7. JON JETER, FLAT BROKE IN THE FREE MARKET: HOW GLOBALIZATION FLEECED WORKING PEOPLE (2009).
8. See Edward Luce, The Crisis of Middle-Class America, FINANCIAL TIMES, July 30, 2010, available at http://www.ft.com (“Dubbed ‘median wage stagnation’ by economists, the annual incomes of the bottom 90 per cent of US families have been essentially flat since 1973—having risen by only 10 per cent in real terms over the past 37 years. That means most Americans have been treading water for more than a generation. Over the same period the incomes of the top 1 per cent have tripled. In 1973, chief executives were on average paid 26 times the median income. Now the multiple is above 300.”). A wonderful resource of economic data is the Economic Policy Institute, http://www.epi.org, particularly its running series entitled “The State of Working America,” available at http://www.stateofworkingamerica.org. For data on inequality, see http://www.stateofworkingamerica.org/features/view/1. For data on rate of change in income, see Lawrence Mishel, Where Has All the Income Gone? Look Up, Mar. 3, 2010, available at http://www.epi.org. For stagnant incomes, see “When Income Grows, Who Gains?”, an interactive chart available at http://www.stateofworkingamerica.org/pages/interactive#/?start=1917&end=1918, using as its source Emmanuel