Cary Neeper's Blog: Reviewing World-changing Nonfiction - Posts Tagged "crash-of-2008"
Reviewing Billionaires’ Ball by McQuaig and Brooks
Billionaires’ Ball: Gluttony and Hubris in an Age of Epic Inequality by Linda McQuaig and Neil Brooks, Boston, Beacon Press, 2012.
In reviewing Billionaires' Ball I'm tempted to quote from the book Zoobiquity: by Barbara Matterson-Horowitz, MD and Kathryn Bowers. Chapter 5 is a fascinating tale of why we all--humans and animals alike--are subject to addiction. Evolution has provided us with nerves and brain chemicals that interplay to create emotions. Survival tactics are rewarded with hits of natural feel-good narcotics like dopamine. Accumulating wealth is a survival tactic, hence it can be addictive--a scary observation for these times.
The authors of Billionaires Ball remind us of the Crash of 2008 and provide a detailed history of “Chapter 5. Why Bill Gates Doesn't Deserve His Fortune, Chapter 6. Why Other Billionaries Are Even Less Deserving...and Chapter 10. Why Billionaires Are Bad for Democracy."
The authors compare the U.S. and Sweden. They observe that most Americans think that we are similar in the distributions of wealth. We are not. Our differences in wealth are currently much higher than the Swedes. In America the average wage has slid downward since the 1970’s, while exorbitant wealth has accumulated to a very low percentage of Americans.
The answers are simple. It is up to Congress to reinstate reasonable leveling measures. Trickle-down economics has been debunked as a myth. I come back again and again to the Lessons of History by Will and Ariel Durant: Rome, faced with hungry people and unequal wealth, chose a ”hundred years of class and civil war," while in the Athens of 594 B.C. Solon, an aristocratic businessman, “…eased the burden of all debtors…established a graduated income tax...reorganized the courts on a more popular basis, and...educated at the government’s expense..." sons of the military. “The government of the United State, in 1933-52 and 1960-65, followed Solon's peaceful methods and accomplished a moderate and pacifying redistribution…"
Why is this so hard to understand? People need to feel some basic respect as part of society, not as lackeys.
In reviewing Billionaires' Ball I'm tempted to quote from the book Zoobiquity: by Barbara Matterson-Horowitz, MD and Kathryn Bowers. Chapter 5 is a fascinating tale of why we all--humans and animals alike--are subject to addiction. Evolution has provided us with nerves and brain chemicals that interplay to create emotions. Survival tactics are rewarded with hits of natural feel-good narcotics like dopamine. Accumulating wealth is a survival tactic, hence it can be addictive--a scary observation for these times.The authors of Billionaires Ball remind us of the Crash of 2008 and provide a detailed history of “Chapter 5. Why Bill Gates Doesn't Deserve His Fortune, Chapter 6. Why Other Billionaries Are Even Less Deserving...and Chapter 10. Why Billionaires Are Bad for Democracy."
The authors compare the U.S. and Sweden. They observe that most Americans think that we are similar in the distributions of wealth. We are not. Our differences in wealth are currently much higher than the Swedes. In America the average wage has slid downward since the 1970’s, while exorbitant wealth has accumulated to a very low percentage of Americans.
The answers are simple. It is up to Congress to reinstate reasonable leveling measures. Trickle-down economics has been debunked as a myth. I come back again and again to the Lessons of History by Will and Ariel Durant: Rome, faced with hungry people and unequal wealth, chose a ”hundred years of class and civil war," while in the Athens of 594 B.C. Solon, an aristocratic businessman, “…eased the burden of all debtors…established a graduated income tax...reorganized the courts on a more popular basis, and...educated at the government’s expense..." sons of the military. “The government of the United State, in 1933-52 and 1960-65, followed Solon's peaceful methods and accomplished a moderate and pacifying redistribution…"
Why is this so hard to understand? People need to feel some basic respect as part of society, not as lackeys.
Reviewing World-changing Nonfiction
Expanding on the ideas portrayed in The Archives of Varok books for securing the future.
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