One summer morning, Annie and her brother Bradley venture down to a nearby stream to play, but find the water murky and devoid of frogs and minnows. They hear a splashing sound behind them, and are startled to see their neighbor, Ms. Carson, approaching them, wearing rubber boots and carrying a box of test tubes. It turns out Ms. Carson is an aquatic ecologist whose job it is to test the health of local streams. After Annie mentions all the green slime found in the stream, Ms. Carson explains that it is the result of a build up of algae caused by excessive amounts of nutrients flowing into the stream. Ms. Carlson and the kids then gather some water samples in test tubes, to which they add special chemicals that reveal that the water contains excessive amounts of phosphorous and nitrogen. Ms. Carlson explains that these are derived from fertilizer and pesticides that their neighbors have been using to excess. Upon hearing this news, Annie and Bradley begin a special campaign to get their neighbors to reduce the amount of chemicals they use in their lawns and gardens, which results in a healthier stream the following year.
One summer morning, Annie and her brother Bradley venture down to a nearby stream to play, but find the water murky and devoid of frogs and minnows. They hear a splashing sound behind them, and are startled to see their neighbor, Ms. Carson, approaching them, wearing rubber boots and carrying a box of test tubes. It turns out Ms. Carson is an aquatic ecologist whose job it is to test the health of local streams. After Annie mentions all the green slime found in the stream, Ms. Carson explains that it is the result of a build up of algae caused by excessive amounts of nutrients flowing into the stream. Ms. Carlson and the kids then gather some water samples in test tubes, to which they add special chemicals that reveal that the water contains excessive amounts of phosphorous and nitrogen. Ms. Carlson explains that these are derived from fertilizer and pesticides that their neighbors have been using to excess. Upon hearing this news, Annie and Bradley begin a special campaign to get their neighbors to reduce the amount of chemicals they use in their lawns and gardens, which results in a healthier stream the following year.
Why, alone among industrial democracies, does the United States not have national health insurance? While many books have addressed this question, Dead on Arrival is the first to do so based on original archival research for the full sweep of the twentieth century. Drawing on a wide range of political, reform, business, and labor records, Colin Gordon traces a complex and interwoven story of political failure and private response. He examines, in turn, the emergence of private, work-based benefits; the uniquely American pursuit of "social insurance"; the influence of race and gender on the health care debate; and the ongoing confrontation between reformers and powerful economic and health interests. Dead on Arrival stands alone in accounting for the failure of national or universal health policy from the early twentieth century to the present. As importantly, it also suggests how various interests (doctors, hospitals, patients, workers, employers, labor unions, medical reformers, and political parties) confronted the question of health care--as a private responsibility, as a job-based benefit, as a political obligation, and as a fundamental right. Using health care as a window onto the logic of American politics and American social provision, Gordon both deepens and informs the contemporary debate. Fluidly written and deftly argued, Dead on Arrival is thus not only a compelling history of the health care quandary but a fascinating exploration of the country's political economy and political culture through "the American century," of the role of private interests and private benefits in the shaping of social policy, and, ultimately, of the ways the American welfare state empowers but also imprisons its citizens.
Market pitchers routinely transform a patch of bare ground into a sea of eager purchasers using little more than their 'gift of the gab' and some homespun 'psychology' to convince passers-by to stop and buy their goods. Employing some of the world's most successful selling techniques, in one of the oldest and most difficult of all marketing situations, their rhetoric and social skills have to equal that employed by the most accomplished salespersons, politicians and professional persuaders. Between 1984 and 1994 sociologists Clark and Pinch recorded over 75 pitching routines on street markets and other sales sites throughout the UK, mainland Europe and the United States. Using examples of pitchers attracting a crowd, describing and demonstrating their goods, building bargains, cajoling the unconvinced to make a purchase and coping with problem customers, the authors reveal, for the very first time, the reasons for these traders' extraordinary success-both on and away from the markets. Comparing their findings with more orthodox sales situations-direct response TV home shopping and infomercials, as well as other forms of grass-roots selling (fly pitching, the mock auction sales con, street entertaining and urban 'hustling')-the authors highlight many important lessons that have relevance for everyone involved in all types of marketing, advertising and persuasion.In this revised, updated and extended edition the authors also reveal why, today, pitching on markets appears to have become a dying art. Original, authoritative and highly readable, The Hard Sell is an essential and often hilarious guide for anyone who wants to understand how real-life selling really works.
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