Business as usual

‘Business as Usual’ reveals how American capitalism has been promoted in the most ephemeral of materials: public service announcements, pamphlets, educational films, and games – what Caroline Jack calls ‘sponsored economic education media.’ These items, which were funded by corporations and trade groups who aimed to ‘sell America to Americans,’ found their way into communities, classrooms, and workplaces, and onto the airwaves, where they promoted ideals of ‘free enterprise’ under the cloaks of public service and civic education. They offered an idealized vision of US industrial development as a source of patriotic optimism, framed business management imperatives as economic principles, and conflated the privileges granted to corporations by the law with foundational political rights held by individuals.