Daily Thoughts 07/07/2015

Interior With Figures, Gwen John, 1898-1899

Daily Thoughts 07/07/2015

I checked the library Twitter and Facebook this morning.

On the way to work, I read some more of Inequality What Can Be Done.  I am reading about financial instruments that help promote more equality.  For example there are sovereign wealth funds which manage natural resources for all the citizens in a country.  There are also things which can be done for retirees like set interest rates for saving accounts to match inflation plus 1% for people on fixed incomes.

I read a little bit more from Dead Wake The Last Crossing of the Lusitania.  I am reading about other ocean liners at the time like the RMS Mauretania and the Titanic.

I checked the gift books and the displays.  I also spent a little time working on programming.  I am setting up the August computer classes.

I spent some time on Bookletters putting in e-books.

There was a digital photography class today from 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. in the computer lab.
I checked out the book, Guerrilla Marketing for Nonprofits by Jay Conrad Levinson.

I read a copy of Library Journal.  Charles Bukowski has a book titled On Writing coming out in August.  I have a copy of the New York Times Book Review to read.

I read some more of Inequality What Can Be Done.  This is a safe book with safe answers that gives a nice overview for a set of standard liberal tactics to reduce poverty.  For example, he states things like there should be a guaranteed minimum wage for those who seek it, children should get a guaranteed basic income to cover their needs, and the government should offer savings bonds with a rate of return that will guarantee people will have enough to live.  Deeper structural issues are not addressed like electronic currency, automation, increasingly financialization of industry except for on a very limited basis.

This book is a solid if you want standard answers.  I found the material on the guaranteed basic income, social insurance and sovereign wealth funds to be interesting.

If you are looking for even slightly uncomfortable answers this book is not for you. Ideas like there should be an increase in the amount of employee ownership of corporations, stockholders should have greater say over executive compensation, everyone should get a free universal college education through a mix of online and in person education, monopolistic corporations should be aggressively broken up, it should be easier to start a small business in your community,  crowd sourcing funding for businesses and setting up co working spaces should be encouraged, we should have more consumption oriented and luxury oriented taxes and less personal income tax are not in here.

I also read a bit more of Dead Wake.  I am reading about what it was like to be on a German u boat during World War I.

I opened the first chapter of Guerrilla Marketing for Nonprofits by Jay Conrad Levinson.



Web Bits

An Innovative Library Lifts the Fortunes of a Chinese Town

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/07/world/asia/enticed-by-a-library-tourists-browse-a-chinese-village.html?_r=0 


Margaret Atwood to Create Cartoons for a Comics Anthology.
http://www.adweek.com/galleycat/margaret-atwood-to-create-cartoons-for-a-comics-anthology/106341