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The sharing economy promised independent workers flexibility and decent pay, but it often falls short on both fronts as platform companies put growth and profit targets first. Worker-owned cooperatives provide a model for more equitable digital business.

Widespread critiques of capitalism-as articulated by social movements such as Occupy Wall Street-have been widely legitimated, say the authors, and the resulting ideological shift has propelled migration towards 'connected consumption'. Emphasizing the re-use of goods rather than buying new, these practices facilitate local, face-to-face connections, and they are redesigning models of service delivery. The authors describe four types of connected consumption, then focus on one ('time banks'), explaining the broader context that is propelling this movement's popularity.

The top tier of society's income and wealth distribution has become a widespread emulative target, and there are implications for consumer satisfaction and collective well-being. The author describes the roots of the problem and how three shifts--in wealth and income distributions, of women into corporate hierarchies, and of the growing importance of electronic media--have led to an escalation of North Americans' consumer aspirations. She then shows how quality of life has been affected in at least three important ways and ponders a sustainable way forward.