Enrico Moretti

Life's too short to finish shitty books. I was hoping to read something that would put into words the vague feeling of discontent I have that my immediate family is spread across the US. Yet I have first cousins who all still live within one block of each other in the small town where they grew up. I know it has to do with our jobs, careers, maybe level of education, but I was hoping to read something more than a gut feeling. Anyway: THIS IS NOT THAT BOOK.

This is a book like Freakonomics (which is one of the worst books I've ever read). Like here's something people know, and now I'm going to use my narrow-minded view of life to make some pithy, radical, off-the-wall comment about it!

This book was all about how poor people are poor because they suck, and rich people were just smart to move to places like San Francisco. There is no analysis of capitalism. None. The author goes on about how WalMart is good for poor people without looking into how WalMart contributes to global poverty. I didn't get far enough to see if there was a critical look into the decimation of labor unions, but I doubt the author was enlightened enough to understand that that, more so than where people live, has contributed to the stagnating and lowering wages of so many people in the United States. Let's not even look into structural racism, student loan debt, the housing crisis, moving risk from corporations to employees (I'm looking at you Uber), and so many other things that are screwing people over, so much more so than where they live.

Seriously, I just can't even with books like this. I can't imagine what it must be like to be so ignorant and privileged that I could choose to ignore the reality of so many people.… (mer)