Since the early 1980s, economics experts have recommended "downsizing" as the best way for U.S. corporations to remain competitive. Reducing unnecessary staff would lower costs, increase profits, and transform these companies into lean, mean production machines. As many American businesses pursued this strategy - often in the wake of mergers and acquisitions that left them with an unwieldy layer of middle management - and raised their bottom line, it seemed the experts were right. Yet as David M.

Gordon shows in this iconoclastic book, most of them have really only gone halfway. They are "mean," but far from lean.

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Instead of sharing profits with their employees, thus encouraging them to work harder, management has more often opted to prod workers by instilling fear of layoffs. Gordon unerringly plots the shortsighted and disastrous course of U.S. corporations, and documents the tremendous social and personal costs to their employees. Yet in addition to telling the harsh truth about downsizing, he suggests policies to ensure fairer business practices.

Wages can increase - indeed, they must - as the economy begins to perform more efficiently. U.S. corporations have become fat and mean. They need to become lean and decent - not just for the sake of their workers, but for the sake of their competitive advantage. This provocative and original book shows how they can.