This engaging book looks at aspects of living large that are likely familiar to the wealthy, but it also offers a peek at...
A self-made multimillionaire shares advice for living in this debut guide.
Being rich and living rich are not necessarily the same thing, writes Bentley, who claims to have founded and sold an unnamed technology company for more than $20 million. This guide, however, may be just as practical for millionaires as it is for those who want to “think like a millionaire (even if you are not one yet).” For both groups, the book boasts common-sense advice about such financial vehicles as credit cards, mortgages, and life insurance. The author’s counsel is nothing if not blunt: “You need two credit cards, no more. One to use and one as a backup in case your first card is declined.” His words about friendship also ring true: “for every friend who is happy with your success, there may be another who is jealous and shows it.” Much of the advice he gives will be practical for anyone, regardless of income. But some chapters, such as “Why a Second Home is Almost Free,” “The Best Island Hotels,” and “Wheels Up! How to Charter a Jet,” are appropriate only for the very rich, as they assume an affluent lifestyle to which many can only aspire. (The chapter “Ten Good Things You Can Do With Your Money,” however, suggests that there are greater aspirations in life than spending a fortune all on oneself.) If the affluent are indeed the book’s primary audience, it’s hard to believe they wouldn’t already be aware of most of the content here. Still, readers who dream big may be interested to know what it’s like to charter a yacht or collect expensive cars. Although this book reveals no remarkable secrets, it’s still a breezy read, with short chapters written in clear language.
This engaging book looks at aspects of living large that are likely familiar to the wealthy, but it also offers a peek at the millionaire’s lifestyle for those with a vicarious interest.Pub Date: Jan. 20, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-5236-1925-2
Page Count: 140
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: June 16, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Occasionally wonky but overall a good case for how the dismal science can make the world less—well, dismal.
“Quality of life means more than just consumption”: Two MIT economists urge that a smarter, more politically aware economics be brought to bear on social issues.
It’s no secret, write Banerjee and Duflo (co-authors: Poor Economics: A Radical Rethinking of the Way To Fight Global Poverty, 2011), that “we seem to have fallen on hard times.” Immigration, trade, inequality, and taxation problems present themselves daily, and they seem to be intractable. Economics can be put to use in figuring out these big-issue questions. Data can be adduced, for example, to answer the question of whether immigration tends to suppress wages. The answer: “There is no evidence low-skilled migration to rich countries drives wage and employment down for the natives.” In fact, it opens up opportunities for those natives by freeing them to look for better work. The problem becomes thornier when it comes to the matter of free trade; as the authors observe, “left-behind people live in left-behind places,” which explains why regional poverty descended on Appalachia when so many manufacturing jobs left for China in the age of globalism, leaving behind not just left-behind people but also people ripe for exploitation by nationalist politicians. The authors add, interestingly, that the same thing occurred in parts of Germany, Spain, and Norway that fell victim to the “China shock.” In what they call a “slightly technical aside,” they build a case for addressing trade issues not with trade wars but with consumption taxes: “It makes no sense to ask agricultural workers to lose their jobs just so steelworkers can keep theirs, which is what tariffs accomplish.” Policymakers might want to consider such counsel, especially when it is coupled with the observation that free trade benefits workers in poor countries but punishes workers in rich ones.
Occasionally wonky but overall a good case for how the dismal science can make the world less—well, dismal.Pub Date: Nov. 12, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-61039-950-0
Page Count: 432
Publisher: PublicAffairs
Review Posted Online: Aug. 28, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2019
SEEN & HEARD
A readable, persuasive argument that our ways of doing business will have to change if we are to prosper—or even survive.
A well-constructed critique of an economic system that, by the author’s account, is a driver of the world’s destruction.
Harvard Business School professor Henderson vigorously questions the bromide that “management’s only duty is to maximize shareholder value,” a notion advanced by Milton Friedman and accepted uncritically in business schools ever since. By that logic, writes the author, there is no reason why corporations should not fish out the oceans, raise drug prices, militate against public education (since it costs tax money), and otherwise behave ruinously and anti-socially. Many do, even though an alternative theory of business organization argues that corporations and society should enjoy a symbiotic relationship of mutual benefit, which includes corporate investment in what economists call public goods. Given that the history of humankind is “the story of our increasing ability to cooperate at larger and larger scales,” one would hope that in the face of environmental degradation and other threats, we might adopt the symbiotic model rather than the winner-take-all one. Problems abound, of course, including that of the “free rider,” the corporation that takes the benefits from collaborative agreements but does none of the work. Henderson examines case studies such as a large food company that emphasized environmentally responsible production and in turn built “purpose-led, sustainable living brands” and otherwise led the way in increasing shareholder value by reducing risk while building demand. The author argues that the “short-termism” that dominates corporate thinking needs to be adjusted to a longer view even though the larger problem might be better characterized as “failure of information.” Henderson closes with a set of prescriptions for bringing a more equitable economics to the personal level, one that, among other things, asks us to step outside routine—eat less meat, drive less—and become active in forcing corporations (and politicians) to be better citizens.
A readable, persuasive argument that our ways of doing business will have to change if we are to prosper—or even survive.Pub Date: May 1, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-5417-3015-1
Page Count: 336
Publisher: PublicAffairs
Review Posted Online: Feb. 16, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2020
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