Customer Reviews

Cheap Motels and a Hot Plate: An Economist's Travelogue

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This book is thought-provoking as well as an easy read. It deals with serious issues like race, class and labor in an interesting, readable way. Although it is very educational, it was the perfect book for me to read poolside on vacation. Cheap Motels and a Hot Plate provides an in-depth look at many popular travel destinations that will make you think twice about what goes on behind the scenes the next time you visit a National Park or stay in a hotel.

The author's look at leisure travel through the lens of the economist is a refreshing change from travelogues that tell you to go-to-this-beach or visit-this-restaurant. The picture of material excess in Miami Beach and the despoiling of nature for profit is revealing of our profit-driven world. Having graduated from the same high school as the author, I can attest to the accuracy of his portrayal of his home town. I do find some irony in the book sale profits the author makes in an economic system he castigates. Over-all, though, an educational and enjoyable drive through the topography of our society: the beautiful, the bad and the ugly.

Cheap Motels and a Hot Plate: An Economist's Travelogue is the memoir of economics professor Michael D. Yates, who set off together on a journey across America. As they traveled, they observed sights and human efforts ranging from a program meant to reverse the privatization of national parks and forests to the political economy of California agriculture which relies heavily on migrant workers to pick food, to a savvy look at the job market in Portland. Cheap Motels and a Hot Plate is not a motel or eatery guide for vacationers per se, but rather an assembly of insights sure to intrigue and captivate armchair travelers. A highly enjoyable read from cover to cover.

I hate to denigrate someone's hard work. In an effort to be objective, however, I have to say I was disappointed in this book. Looking for something light-hearted, as the title and cover seemed to suggest, I was instead subjected to a treatise on the working conditions of the lower middle class in 21st century America. Anyone interested in "Cheap Motels and a Hot Plate" should be aware that this is a work by a dedicated leftist.

I am not saying there's anything wrong with the left-wing point of view, just that the author's opinions are definitely skewed. That's not to say that Mr. Yates doesn't have some very valid points. His description of the summer he and his wife spent working for Xanterra in Yellowstone National Park is quite the eye opener. It's enough to make a would-be tourist balk at the idea of putting any money into that profit-obsessed company's pocket. The working and living conditions of the company employees are pathetic to say the least. No benefits, lousy food, cramped quarters, long hours, indifferent managers and a stressful environment would dissuade all but the desperate from working for Xanterra at any of their national park locations. The author's Yellowstone experience is perhaps the most interesting and useful of the entire story.

Unfortunately, the rest of the book is not particularly enlightening. We are treated to a back-and-forth tale of the couple's stints in various parts of the country after his retirement from a college teaching position. New York City, Portland and Miami are highlighted and some of this is worthy of note. One wonders, however, how Mr. Yates didn't see some of the hassles in advance. Is it a surprise, for example, that rents in Manhattan are outrageous and what you get for your money is contemptible? It rains a lot during the winter in Portland, Oregon. Miami is a loud, hedonistic, over-the-top party place. I'm sorry but none of this is news.

Statistics on population, race, income and housing are provided at the beginning of every chapter for each city/town lived in or visited for any length of time. This takes up a lot of space and could easily be found on the Internet if one were inclined to learn more about these places. The title of the book is based on the author's philosophy of living cheaply while on the road. Again, nothing new here. On this subject we're exposed to way too much detail.

I don't need to know that they stocked their van with "organic chips, nuts, trail mix, cookies, noodles, olive oil, balsamic vinegar, a few spices, peppercorns, kosher salt, sugar, garlic, peanut butter, granola, oatmeal, raisins, mustard, canned salmon, cans of organic beans, vegetables, chili, boxes of organic soups, a ten-pound bag of basmati rice and as much water, beer and Starbucks coffee beans as 'they' could reasonably pack" (pp. 147-148). Regrettably, Yates lapses into this somewhat obsessive list-making throughout the book, describing furniture bought and household necessities packed, ordered and stored for future use. We also don't need to know the procedure with which they cooked rice and oatmeal on the hot plate; or a plethora of other minute details that permeate the book. There's also the author's irritating habit of referring to his children as "our sons," "our daughter" or even "the one son." We never get to learn their names.

I find it curious that while the author denigrates our modern capitalist society at every turn he lauds such nouveau enterprises as Starbucks, Whole Foods and Trader Joe's. Capitalism definitely has a down side but you take the good with the bad. I tend to agree with Yates on the lopsided conditions we "worker bees" find ourselves in after years under a Republican-dominated government. Way too much of our hard-earned money is funneled to corporate America. Tax breaks are given to the very companies that rape our land, drain it of resources and stick us with the bill. Giant houses, many owned as second and third homes, spread further and further into the countryside, eating up the landscape and sucking water and other precious resources until they run dry. Overdevelopment, as the author points out, encroaches on the gems of our national park system. The National Forest Service is a joke, selling out to the bidder with hands in the most Congressional pockets. On the other hand, as the publisher's review on this website points out, Mr. Yates profited heavily during the stock market boom of the 1990s, enabling him to cash out and hit the road. Where does he think that investment money came from? The profits of corporate America fund his current lifestyle, shoe-string or not. While chastising the wasteland that many areas of our country have turned into, the author hints at dropping money into Indian casinos in various states, even winning $250 at one point. Could there be a more sinister example of capitalism than a money-sucking casino?

Some of the assertions are downright absurd. For example, while in Miami Yates describes the lack of birdlife. There are seagulls but "gulls are like human beings in capitalist society - they steal food from each other's mouths" (p. 213). Does the message have to be inculcated into everything? While haranguing us with an essay on the evils of modern agricultural methods, the book makes the amazing statement that before the proliferation of widespread crop production, human beings "kept ourselves in relative harmony with the world around us" and "divided our output in an egalitarian manner; there were neither rich nor poor." This is downright delusional. Maybe a particular tribe or village divided its "output in an egalitarian manner" but heaven help the tribe over the hill or in the next valley if they wanted a share. Human history is rife with conflict, greed and aggression.

I'm not saying that Yates doesn't make some good points. The effects of modern corporate agriculture can indeed be insidious. To preface his opinions with statements like these, however, undermine what he's driving at. He also claims that after the proliferation of incredible advances in food yields "life expectancies fell, physical stature diminished and diseases became rampant." The exact opposite is the case. I think the author needs to take a serious look at human history. Have you ever seen the clothes worn by people in colonial America? Take a look in some of our museums.

One final complaint and I'll desist. A lot of the book is taken up with descriptions of the cities, towns and regions the author and his wife visited and lived in. Most of the information provided could be written as "America 101." Blacks have gotten the short end of the stick throughout US history. What was done to the American Indian is not only shameful but despicable. A short history of Mormonism, the shady practices of the 19th and early 20th century "robber barons" and the struggles of the labor movement bring nothing new to the table. The wonders of our national parks may be fresh to the author but, I'm sorry, the narrative falls flat.

The bottom line is that Yates and his wife come across as nice, caring, environmentally conscientious, not unreasonable people. I particularly enjoyed the exposure of some of the poseurs of the "new left" in Manhattan for the hypocritical phonies that they are. I wish my review didn't have to be so negative. The perspective of "Cheap Motels and a Hot Plate" sheds a much needed light on the economic disparities across 21st century America. I hope "We the People" wake up and realize what's being done to us and our country by a tiny percentage of greedy, self-indulgent, unscrupulous, short-sighted power mongers. Unfortunately, I don't think this is the book that will give us the kick in the pants we desperately need.

I had the pleasure of taking two classes from the author in the 1970s, so I was not surprised by his liberal viewpoint. I'm proud to call myself a liberal, but 30 years on, Dr. Mike Yates is still more liberal than I am. So, if you're a Republican, you probably won't enjoy this book.

Mike's travelogue is enjoyable, although his writing degrades into stream-of-consciousness from time to time, and he includes more personal details than most travelogues.

This is really an opinionated liberal economist's travel diary. I enjoyed it very much, and I recommend it.

This book is about how people SHOULD be able to make a decent and honest living from their work in this country, and how much harder that is becoming for the average person - but for some reason this apparently goes right over the heads of some readers.

The comments about the supposed irony in the author making money from writing a book about economic realities in America totally miss the point.

It's a great book and I'm glad he wrote it and glad he's making some money from it - I doubt he's getting rich from it though.

Do people not think he should get paid for his labor and his talent and his insight in writing the book? Do they think someone else should profit from his labor more than he should?

Now that would be business as usual in America, and that is exactly what the book is NOT advocating.

I thought this book was a "must-read" (cliche-sorry) for anyone who is interested in exploring the country in a more non-conventional way...most people who travel do not really experience the reality of American culture, most notably the working class (as discussed in this book). This book shows how people blindly embrace commodity-driven lifestyles without understanding what it takes to provide those luxuries to those who can afford it. It makes you think, more people should start doing that!

Michael Yates has discovered America and its not the glossy, star-spangled, fantasy-culture blasted at you 24/7 by the corporate infotainment state. This is the America of cheap motels and low-wage service economy jobs, from Yellowstone National Park to Miami Beach to Portland to Pittsburgh. "Cheap Motels and a Hot Plate" is literally an on the ground report from the front lines of America as actually seen and experienced by a working class son of the Sixties and former college economics professor, who knows a cheap con when he sees it.

Yates incisive American travelogue is a panoramic, coast to coast exploration of the scarred beauty and turbulent history of our once great nation. It's a searing economic expose of the relentless commercial onslaught of the last forty years on our people, our land and our democracy, resulting in a growing class inequality unprecedented in American history. If Michael Moore was a travel writer, this is the book he would have written. -- Ron O'Brien, Contributer, Free San Francisco: The Ultimate Free Fun Guide to the Bay Area

This book focuses on specific areas of the country, giving personal views of the beauty or ugliness of each place and of how income and lifestyle affect them. It gave some statistics to back up the author's perceptions. Reading his personal experiences in traveling through and living in the many places held my interest throughout the book.

We traveled right along with the author - hot plate in tow! (No kidding - we brought our own food on our most recent vacation, ate and felt better and actually LOST weight without even trying!) It was fun to join him on his journeys.