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The Pagan Porch  The Library   Books I've read recently Support Search RSS runboard.com       Sign up (learn about it) | Sign in (lost password?) Page:  1  2  3  TexasMadness Administrator Global user (premium) Registered: 03-2007 Location: Austin, Texas Posts: 2519 Reply | Quote Re: Books I've read recently The Magnificent Ambersons by Booth Tarkington Written in 1918 and taking place at the turn of that century, the book tells the story of an aristocratic family in decline. The new millionaires of the industrial revolution are taking over the spotlight and the city. I've read lots of books from this era or just before, that take place in England. But this books is set in the Mid-West of the US. It was interesting to see some of the similar problems of aristocratic families here. While not nearly as clever as Jane Austen or as dark as Charles ****ens, the book still had my giggling at times and feeling a serious sense of dread at others. It was a good read and an interesting part of American history that seems to be overshadowed by the stories from the great Victorian authors in England. 11/14/2008, 4:33 pm Send Email to TexasMadness   Send PM to TexasMadness TexasMadness Administrator Global user (premium) Registered: 03-2007 Location: Austin, Texas Posts: 2519 Reply | Quote Re: Books I've read recently The World is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century by Thomas L. Friedman Interesting book. It describes the ways in which our world has changed so drastically since the advent of certain technologies. It also discusses the benefits of off-shoring and out-sourcing. This is a topic that I am most interested in. I strongly believe in helping our own country first. I don't know why, it just feels right. But this book explained how it IS beneficial to send factory work to China and costumer service work to India. I still feel that the products produced in China are of inferior quality even if I now see the benefit to Americans - both in the number of jobs available and the standard of living increases. It's a complicated system! If you are at all interested in world economics, then read this book. It was written in 2005 and is therefore already a bit out of date because it is about such a changing field. But the history part (starts in the 80s) is very intriguing and I learned a lot. The audio program has been expanded and updated and I think it is still free from the author's website (promo for his new book). Last edited by TexasMadness, 11/18/2008, 3:30 pm 11/18/2008, 3:30 pm Send Email to TexasMadness   Send PM to TexasMadness de Corbin Registered user Global user Registered: 09-2008 Posts: 568 Reply | Quote Re: Books I've read recently Hmmm... sounds like an interesting book. It would be nice to keep work "in house," but it doesn't work. Japan tried it, and experienced runaway inflation (cost of goods rose, wages rose to match it, cost of goods rose to meet increased wages.. and with no outside competition - bad economic situation... but you'll never hear that on the news, or from a politician, and most people find economics to boring to bother trying to understand it). And, as you said, if people would like to see the economic situation for those living in third world countries improve (i.e. - want to get rid of 8 year olds working in sweat shops to support their family?), they will need work to do - it's much better than sending aid, and far, far more effective. So what are the benefits for us here? --- 11/18/2008, 5:25 pm Send Email to de Corbin   Send PM to de Corbin TexasMadness Administrator Global user (premium) Registered: 03-2007 Location: Austin, Texas Posts: 2519 Reply | Quote Re: Books I've read recently The author talked about several ways that off-shoring (moving a factory to another country) and out-sourcing (letting another company/country handle a certain a aspect of your industry) help American wage earners. First, there is the "if it's on sale, people buy more" factor. If things are cheap, even more money is actually spent. So if Company X moves their factory to China, they end up making even more of their product and therefore having to hire more Americans to work on this end of things (distribution, sales, management, etc). You still lose factory jobs, but in economics, you can't look at the individual (the out of work factory guy), you have to look at the whole economy (more higher paying jobs). It's hard to see that, but apparently it really is happening - not just a theory, but reality. And there is also the competitive aspect. When we out source engineering to a firm in India, that makes it so that Americans (should) spend more money on technology education here to bring those jobs back. It's the whole "competition breeds better quality" spiel. The problem here is (as pointed out in the book) that America is one of the few countries that hasn't caught on. Other countries are pouring more and more resources into education and training to one-up their competitors while the US has continually slashed the budgets for science programs and education. Sooo....this one is "reality" but SHOULD BE! And hopefully will be in the future. Finally, raising up the people across the globe, raises you up too. More economic stability on the planet means we are also more stable. Think what would happen to our economy is China suddenly "fell" somehow. Ouch. But if we keep sending work to them, we keep them more stable and therefore us more stable. There were some other details too but I would need to read the book a second time. TONS of information and it's harder to absorb sometimes when listening - you can't go back and reread a sentence as easily. One of the reasons I usually do fiction for audio books and save non-fiction for actual text. But the audio version of this book is the expanded, updated one. 11/18/2008, 5:55 pm Send Email to TexasMadness   Send PM to TexasMadness de Corbin Registered user Global user Registered: 09-2008 Posts: 568 Reply | Quote Re: Books I've read recently That's a good point - you actually increase the probability of peace in the world by engaging in free trade. A person doesn't go to war with trading partners - it's in neither party's best interest. One of the reasons why the Swiss were able to maintain neutrality during WWII, despite being in Germany's direct route to France, was that the Nazis kept their money in Swiss banks. Assult the guy who's keeping your money? Hmmm... not a good idea... And I really wish people would get that idea about education you mentioned. In the long run, the strength of a country lies in the strength of it's citizens - and intellectual strength is a big part of it. I suspect that there is still a lot of prejudice in America against education. We've just so recently come out of our "settle and develop" period, when a strong back meant more in terms of success than a well developed mind did. Now that the balance has shifted, the thinking of a fairly large section of the population hasn't shifted yet to match it. Also, although I'm generally a Republican, I don't think the Republican's effort to turn over public education to private industry by imposing impossible standards and then bankrupting it has helped much. I'm hoping that the new guy will make some changes there. --- 11/19/2008, 4:43 pm Send Email to de Corbin   Send PM to de Corbin technica Registered user Global user Registered: 12-2008 Posts: 7 Reply | Quote Re: Books I've read recently I am not a book reader or book lover. Not even from your gang of book lover. ut though Currently I am reading a book with title "The magic of thinking BIG". A page in a week thats the rate with which I am reading it. kinda funny but I will complete it for sure. Wish me luck. 12/14/2008, 11:01 am Send Email to technica   Send PM to technica Add a reply Page:  1  2  3  Link to us   -  Blogs   -  Hall of Honour   -  Chat You are not logged in (login)      Board's time is: 11/30/2009, 8:42 am