Month: July 2004

Working Poor by David K. Shipler is a terrific book. One of those books that helps you see the world through somebody else’s eyes. I remember standing behind a woman in Walmart once who didn’t have enough money to pay, and instead of taking out the DVD or the tennis shoes, she took out the food. The good food, not the junk food. Shipler’s book helped me to understand how someone could make that choice in that situation. He explains that the poor are in a cycle of poverty because they don’t have the skills or resources to teach their children better. I won’t try to explain it all to you – read the book! But I thought a couple of his concluding points were worth calling out.

– David Shipler advocates not for raising the minimum wage, but for creating a path to better jobs. People that start out at minimum wage should have a clear training or experience path to a job with better wages. There will always be people around to fill the entry jobs, however, to end the cycle of poverty, we have to allow those that are working hard and well to progress.

– Job education is key. Many children from poor families don’t learn the basics of job interviewing, showing up on time, customer service, etc. As hard as it is for some of us to accept that, we could do the best good by teaching them the basics. Shipler had quite a few positive examples in this space.

Through real people Shipler shows us what the life of the working poor is like in America. Check out a copy from your local library or click on the link to the right and buy it. Read it.

This BookMachine can print a book in five minutes. Select the book you want, insert your credit card, and in 5 minutes, your book comes out the slot. Imagine what this will mean to bookstores! To all the industries involved in getting books from publishing houses to bookstores!

Will your local chain bookstore still stock thousands of titles to browse through? Or just the bestsellers? Will there be “bookstore kiosks” at the local mall? The airport?

If these machines catch on and publishers buy into it, I would expect book prices to drop significantly as shipping costs decrease and overprinting and overstocking problems are eliminated completely.

I haven’t read this book, but I just added it to my wish list after reading this Newsweek summary.

“Running on Empty: In his new book, Peter G. Peterson, chairman of the Blackstone Group and a former secretary of Commerce, explains how the theological war between Republicans and Democrats is bankrupting our future” It seems to add factual material to my theory that we exaggerate the differences between the parties and follow our party’s belief a little too blindly.