Barry Lynn asserts that monopolies dominate most every industry – and he may know well enough from his own work experience. “I’ve flipped burgers, and I’ve packed screws into bags and put those bags into boxes in a factory,” he writes in Cornered: The New Monopoly Capitalism and the Economics of Destruction. He’s moved furniture, entered data, hauled lumber, made deliveries, refilled soda machines, driven trucks. “I’ve worked for multinational corporations and the tiniest of family businesses,” he says. Below, Lynn reveals more about himself in our Green Room Q&A.
Q. Where would we find you at 10 a.m. on a typical Saturday?
A. On a soccer field with my children.
Q. What music have you listened to today?
A. Today, it’s unfortunate, I’ve been in a car and it just has the old radio. If I were at home I’d be listening to Old Crow Medicine Show, or some salsa or jazz.
Q. What do you consider to be the greatest simple pleasure?
A. Walking on the beach.
Q. What is your fondest childhood memory?
A. That’s a tough one. I had a good childhood. I liked hanging out with the old Jews on Miami Beach with my aunt.
Q. Who is your favorite fictional character?
A. The narrator in Sterne’s A Sentimental Journey.
Q. What is your favorite cocktail?
A. Bourbon, straight up.
Q. When do you feel most creative?
A. When I’m hungover.
Q. If you could take only one more journey, where would you go?
A. Back to India.
Q. What is your most prized material possession?
A. I have this little carved wood AK-47 which I got from this fella in the Shining Path. It’s about five inches long, and inserted into it is a pen – because the pen is mightier than the sword, or in this case the gun.
Q. What was the first job you ever held?
A. I worked at a factory where they made model balsa airplanes.
Q. Who is the one person living or dead you would most like to meet for dinner?
A. Thomas Jefferson.
To read more about Lynn’s talk, click here.
*Photo by Aaron Salcido.