Fulfillment: Winning and Losing in One-Click America

Amazon has been closely tied to many of the changes in society today. The big coastal cities have boomed. Meanwhile, small town America is in bad shape. Most well-paying industrial jobs have long since left. The new economy jobs tend to focus on the already well-endowed big cities. (Tech workers prefer to go to cities that already have a large number of tech jobs.) Local retail has also been moving away from small towns.

With little job opportunities available, small towns are eager to have an Amazon fulfillment center located nearby. Alas, Amazon plays off the desire for jobs by extracting significant subsidies. Thus, the city typically gets very limited tax revenue from the Amazon location, yet still need to provide the appropriate services. Amazon engages in great secrecy in the process.

Data centers are also sprouting up in multiple locations. These typically consume huge amounts of electricity, but do not generate many jobs. In some cases, the other ratepayers are forced to pay for the extension of the high voltage lines to the location.

Amazon has also made extensive use of "third parties". Many workers start out as contractors. Amazon delivery drivers are almost all independent contractors. The Amazon website also includes many third party sellers. When Amazon pushed into business procurement, they included the talking point that they could still buy from their local provider on Amazon's site. However, the provider would now be required to pay a commission to Amazon. (And Amazon now has information about the provider and the ability to undercut them.)

The book includes many anecdotes about people that have negative changes in their life connected to Amazon. Bethlehem Steel had well paying union jobs. However, they got very fat and content, with both executive and union payed extremely well. International trade and technological advances led to the fall. There are many other jobs that fell similarly, leaving limited opportunity for those without college educations. The fall of family structure and drug addiction makes life even more miserable.

Amazon is a huge company with a number of small organizations. Each group tries its best to maximize individual profitability. They are like small companies trying to get the best deal, while having a giant company behind them. This can lead to large negative impacts without even trying. Is it time to split it up?

The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg and Other Stories

The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg: And Other Stories by Mark Twain

Mark Twain has his own sense of humor. In the short story collection he can be a little more callous than he is in some of his more popular novels. He doesn't accept one bit of self-righteousness, and prefers the down-to-earth to the pompous. His characters emphasize that nobody is perfectly good or perfectly bad, and events can happen to people regardless of their disposition.

The stories included the following:

The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg (1899)-- The town prides itself on being extremely honest. A traveler doesn't like this, and sets off a plan to corrupt them. He has a large sum of money for the man who "helped" him. The person is supposed to write a letter with the phrase that he uttered to help the man. The man then sends letters to each of the "big" men of the town mentioning this phrase as a means of testing their honesty. They all bite, and make a mockery of the town's honesty. However, the keeper withholds the letter from one man, saving him the embarrassment. However, this leads to that man having internal torment, and he ends up dying shortly thereafter. The town now had a negative reputation and eventually changed its name. Down with hypocrisy!

The celebrated jumping frog of Calaveras County (1865) -- This was a lot shorter than I remembered.
The one million pound bank note -- A penniless man finds a million-pound bank note. Nobody can cash it, but everyone now treats him as wealthy. He amasses fame, but is conservative in the money he spends. Eventually, his notoriety allows him to earn real money and marry into wealth. (Is this anticipating celebrities whose only claim to fame is that they are famous?

 Edward Mills and George Benton : a tale (1880) -- One guy did good all his life. The other did bad. Every now and then, the bad guy would try to do good for a bit in order to reap the many benefits of society. He managed to amass many friends and others trying to help him. Eventually, the bad guy kills the good guy in a bank robbery. The good guy is fairly ignored, while everyone tries to help the bad guy. A century or two later, society still falls into the trap. We spend many resources on attempting to "reform" and "educate" those that have "chosen poorly". The occasional success story helps keep this going. Meanwhile, those that work hard and try to do good are pretty much ignored. (After all, they are doing what society wants, no need for society to expend resources.) As long as the "bad" make occasional presentations of good, they can continue on their debauchery.

The stolen white elephant (1882)-- Absurdist

Cannibalism in the cars (1868)-- Dark humour where people talk very formally about "who they will eat".

 The story of the good little boy -- Goes with the next one. Bad things happens to good people.

The story of the bad little boy (1865)-- ... and good things happen to bad people.

The man who put up at Gadsby's -- Don't recall much from this one.

Baker's blue jay yam : what stumped the blue jays -- This one didn't seem to stick either

A double barreled detective story (1902)-- This is a long story that involves Sherlock Holmes, a mistaken identity and a complicated revenge plot. About halfway through, the story changes from the "revenge" plot to Sherlock Holmes. I thought I might have accidentally gone on to the next story. However, at the end it finally all ties together.

Classics of American Literature

Classics of American Literature surveys American literature, starting with Benjamin Franklin. He spends multiple lectures covering single works and authors. There were a half-dozen lectures covering Emerson and Thoreau. It didn't leave me with any desire to read them again. However, Benjamin Franklin and Washington Irving seem to be worth going over again. And Nathaniel Hawthorne and Poe rank high on the list.

There tend to be multiple lectures on each author, making the pace rather slow. Twentieth Century literature seems to be be much more in line with works I remember reading. (Thanks to a great high school English teacher. I took mostly Brit. lit in college, so that wasn't much help here.)

He also mentions the "canon" and how some of the "white men" like Eliot, Fitzgerald and Faulkner are out of favor. It is sad that political correctness has gone so overboard that it seeks out minor figures just because they were not represented. This is a great disservice, especially considering one discussion about the inter-relation of the past and present. History is impacted by how the present sees it. While studying lots of obscure writers from the past may make academics feel good, it doesn't help them to understand the people of that time. Then, people read and studied the big guys of the period. Even if there were high quality writers left by the wayside, studying them would not help us understand history any better. Instead, it leaves us just with literature in the isolation. And if we are focusing on isolated literature, we should pick the highest quality literature regardless of authorship or time period. (Though when people 100 years from now study today, they should pick some of the obscure 200 year old works to understand today better.)

I had recently read Invisible Man, so some of the commentary on it seemed to most relevant. Many of the other books discussed seemed to have good points, but not necessarily books that I would like to read. I guess that makes this long series of lectures a time saver.

What's So Great About America

[August 2009] This book was written after the September 11th attacks, but before the Iraq invasion. As such, I wasn't expecting much more than rah rah patriotism. I was presently surprised to find a good argument in favor of western civilization. He turns many of the objections to western (and American) culture into positives, pointing out that only a sufficiently open and advanced society would allow (and condone) such behavior. He similarly argues that the many different cultures add to the fabric of the country, but that most immigrants move because they prefer the western/American culture (not because they want to totally preserve their old culture.) The western position on slavery is also seen as a positive, as western society willingly gave up the institution (in spite of being encourage by Africans to maintain it.)

The author, though obviously quite conservative in outlook acknowledges that others don't share the views, and further argues that there ability to have differing views is a benefit to the culture.

Unfortunately, in his discussion of Islamic society and the "enemies" of America his knowledge and arguments come across as far less convincing. And I imagine, they would have even more problems if he had to defend the past few years debacle in Iraq.

Roughing It

Mark Twain published this travel book in 1872. Perhaps due to his use of humor, he was able to make observations that put him way ahead of his time. The premise is a supposed three month trip to Nevada that turns out being a multi-year exploration of the west. The trip was done long before interstates and airplanes, and even long before trains made the trip easy. (In one portion, he quotes a train travelogue to mock how easy the trip has become.) His journey was on horse-drawn stagecoach across the mostly undeveloped west. He has observations about the conditions of the plains and the mountains as well as the people that inhabit the area.

The first large civilized area that he encounters is Salt Lake City. He calls it the only true monarchy in America, and presents stories about Brigham Young and his "power" in the area. He had plans of trying to "expose" the Mormons. However, he came away with a fairly balanced view, which seemed much ahead of his time. He acknowledged that he would hear stories from "gentiles" about the Mormons that always seemed to have a different set of facts. He even took time to read the Book of Mormon, and quotes parts of it in his book. While he does manage to jumble a few facts of doctrine and history, his end opinion is to just let the people be. (He acknowledges that they are the hardest working people in the west, and free from most vices. And, being a humorist, he can get away with saying that the women are so comely, that the mean are doing a huge service by taking on multiple wives.)

For Indians, he also had a balanced view that was ahead of its times. Some Indians he would see as ridiculously lazy, in comparison to others that are hard working. He would also acknowledge some of their good attributes and compare them favorably to the "American" inhabitants. Similar positive treatment was given to other ethnic minorities such as the Chinese.

In fact, just about all his observations were presented well from both sides. Even when he seemed to be strongly opposed to something, he would present the other view, often using exaggeration for humor. About the only thing that I remember him taking a strong one-sided stand on was jury trial. He thought it was ridiculous that we try to field a jury of embacels that had never read about a case. Instead, we should have more upstanding citizens that could better dispense justice.

In Nevada he seemed to make and lose fortunes a few times. However, the consistent income he produced was working in journalism. Being a newspaperman he was regularly given "gifts" of interests in mines, often in response to his reporting. Even mention of a mine would often be enough to help drive up the share prices. (Seems a lot like the dot-com bubble.)

In addition to keen historical observation, Twain takes a turn at weather forecasting. San Francisco is 70 degrees year round. Precipitation, however, can be ascertained by looking at a calendar. 4 months of the year raining during the winter, and 8 months of sun during the summer. Sacramento, on the other hand is Summer year round.

Twain also made a voyage out to Hawaii. There he learned of the natives more laid back style (and regularly got cheated out of horse rentals.) He marveled at the natural wonders of the island, but spent more time describing the locals. White men were missionaries, sailors or government officials. The natives originally thought Captain Cook was a god and treated him royally. He, in return, abused them. When they realized he wasn't deity, they promptly executed him. Missionaries later came to clothe the natives and dissuade them from their crude traditions.

Eventually Twain returns home, ending an entertaining lesson in history and human behavior.

Amerika

Amerika was written by Kafka, yet it comes across as much more traditional style. A young man gets in to trouble in Europe and is sent off to America. He luckily runs in to a relative, and is able to get a good position. Then he alienates the relative and heads west to attempt to make it on his own. America is the land of opportunity.

Elmer Gantry

Elmer Gantry was the "popular jerk" at his school. He was good at athletics. He had leadership position because he told people they had to vote for him. He didn't have friends. In spite of going to a Baptist school and being raised by a very religious mother, he had little need for religion in his life.

However, the people of the school worked on him, and he discovered that he really liked preaching better than studying law. So, he was "converted" and entered the seminary to begin preaching. Things seemed to be going alright. However, he would occasionally slip in to his old ways with women and drink. He was able to get out of one quandary with an astute plan. However, on a train trip to a preaching gig, he fell in to drinking, and missed the gig entirely, resulting in his expulsion. He did some sales for a while, but eventually found his way back to preaching, got married, and then worked his way up to a high position. Then, his dalliances with a girl nearly led to his downfall. Luckily, he was able to dig up some dirt on her, clear his name, and lead the American moral crusade.

Elmer struggles with his carnal urges throughout his life. In spite of his many character flaws, he can be a power of moral persuasion in the lives of many people. He seemed to grow over the course of the novel. At first he was just doing something that was fun. Later, he found that he had a real strength in preaching. He even set personal goals of cleaning up some of his bad behaviors. That he failed to live up to his own expectations is a sign of his humanity. His upward trajectory showed that he could keep improving.

This book was extremely controversial on its release. The rap was that Lewis was portraying preachers in a negative, hypocritical light. While that may have been his intention, the result is a book that shows that success can happen even in spite of character flaws. Religious leaders may be justly held up to a high standard of morality. However, they remain people with their inherent flaws. Athletes may get back in shape after they gain a few pounds in the off-season. Similarly, preachers can still be great if they succumb to moral temptations. The message of "repentance" applies to themselves as well as others. It is almost a pity that these have to be hidden away rather tan made public as an example for everyone else.

In Elmer Gantry, Sinclair Lewis has created another one of his timeless characters.

Tinkers

An old guy is near death, and we get to travel back to early 20th century America to learn about his life. I didn't find much of value in most of the novel until near the end when it started to become intriguing. We learn about how he snuck off from his family and started a new life, but kept coming back to check in on them. Then the novel suddenly ends right as it is starting to get good. Oh well, at least it was short.