The True Cost of Low Prices: The Violence of Globalization

Now updated and expanded! Built upon the structure and content of the successful first edition (currently in its eighth printing), this second edition of The True Cost of Low Prices: The Violence of Globalization examines the effects of globalization on the earth’s poorest and most vulnerable people within the context of scripture and church teaching. The text engages the reader with stories of the women, men, and children living in poverty who have experienced both the promise of the global economy and its troubling outcomes.

The nine thematic chapters begin with a story of a person affected by a particular dimension of the violence of globalization. That is followed by a description of the signs of the times, including the topic’s relationship to low prices, and then by what the church teaches, utilizing the Catechism, the Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, papal encyclicals, the documents of Vatican II, and the statements of the U.S. Catholic bishops. Each chapter concludes with signs of hope, descriptions of groups and strategies that make a difference. Each chapter also includes discussion questions and suggestions for making a difference.