The public corporation collapsed as employer, halving US public-firm employment between 1970 and 2000

Evidence

These principles, culled from a once-extremist philosophy, were canonized as standard practice across commercial, financial, and legal domains. By 2000, US public corporations employed fewer than half as many Americans as they did in 1970.35 In 2009 there were only half as many public firms as in 1997. The public corporation had become “unnecessary for production, unsuited for stable employment and the provision of social welfare services, and incapable of proving a reliable long-term return on investment.” — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 129

Categorization

• XREF: Relevant to the book’s central argument that the collapse of the public firm created the vacuum surveillance capitalism filled. — connects to: US public corporations employed under half their 1970 American workforce by 2000 — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 129; The midcentury lifetime-employment contract was dismantled across white-collar America — Robert D. Putnam, Bowling Alone The Collapse and Revival…, 287

Broader Connections

• US public corporations employed under half their 1970 American workforce by 2000 #corroborates (1.00) — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 129