Daily Thoughts 03/26/2014
We had the book club meeting today for a book on Eleanor Roosevelt. It was interesting. One of the club members read Eleanor Roosevelt's My Day which is a collection of her newaper columns. We are reading a book on Michelle Obama for a meeting on April 29, 2014 from 1:00 p.m. to 2:30 p.m.. I plan on reading Michelle Obama An American Story by David Colbert.
I spent some time talking about the computer classes with a colleague.
This morning, I checked the displays and the gift books. The April Bookpage also came in.
On the way home, I read some of The Second Machine Age. I am reading about how productivity is affeced by digital goods and information technology. The authors describe how there is a tendency to concentrate wealth with digital products to a few people who made the product and no one else. This is a different style of generating wealth than before. They also discuss the conundrum of free products which increase productivity and creativity and how they would be counted in traditional economics.
There is a tension right now which pervades where I work. On May 6, 2014 our budget goes up to vote. We are preparing to request that people help support the library.
I read a little bit more of The Second Machine Age tonight. I am reading about machines substituting for labor. In economic terms this would be capital substituting for labor. There is a pattern which is not being described in this book where first jobs are outsourced overseas from the United States to other countries where labor is cheaper, then they are brought back when new capital equipment becomes cheaper than labor.
This happens equally with things like customer service, where jobs are sent overseas, then they are brought back when people can use noise canceling headsets and work from home on their home computers at minimum wage which is called home sourcing. Substituting capital for labor very often concentrates wealth.
I question the answer in this book which says it is education for creative jobs and social jobs. Assuming that the majority of people are suited for these jobs is questionable.
Web Bits
Why Libraries Should Look Beyond Library Card Ownership as a
Measure of Support
How US Libraries are Becoming Community Problem Solvers
Surging Rents Force Booksellers from New York
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