Jeremy Rifkin
The Age of Access: The New Culture of Hypercapitalism Where All of Life Is a Paid-For-Experience
Underwritten by: Grand Bank

Having written 15 books on the impact of scientific and technological changes on culture, Jeremy Rifkin is highly influential in shaping public policy. His unique perspectives have made him a frequent guest on television programs including CNN Crossfire and CBS Face the Nation. For The January Series he will address the subject of The Age of Access, the title of his most recent book, in which he foresees a society that secures most of what we want and need in the form of purchased experiences that will leave little room for relationships based on kinship and neighborliness, that shifts demand from manufactured goods to cultural experiences, and that sees giants of the industrial age, like General Motors, give way to new giants of cultural capitalism, such as Time-Warner. The result will be that culture itself is absorbed into the economy so that only commercial bonds are left to hold society together.