Review by Nicole Roberge "Just buy a PowerBall ticket, my grandmother said. Then all your money issues could be solved."
Everybody wants a scheme for getting rich, and, for many, money thoughts are habitual mind-clutter: when is the rent due, do I get paid this week, didn t I just pay that bill?
But, sometimes, a little bit of melody comes along to cut through all the noise. That's how I felt when first discovering
Plutonomics: A Unified Theory of Wealth by S. E. Harrison.
Plutonomics presents what appears to be the first modern theory that explains wealth from the ground up, breaking wealth into four factors that together account for everything from citizenship to real estate, business contacts to--yes--money. Providing quotes from thinkers throughout the ages as well as easy-to-follow illustrations, Harrison walks readers in baby-step fashion from the first simple lesson of wealth through layers of ever-increasing complexity. While the work doesn't preach or speak down to readers, it does squarely present us with both the tools for and the challenges of learning and eventually mastering wealth.
A businessperson and attorney, Harrison is also an eloquent writer and philosopher, not a common combination to find on today's bookshelves. In all,
Plutonomics delivers an elegant approach to wealth, and its readers--PowerBall buyers or not--will be better off for having read it.
View this review --Nicole Roberge is a journalist who has written for The Los Angeles Times, ELLEgirl, Rolling Stone, and other print and electronic publications.
Review by David Wilkening
Right off the bat, I will say that the author's own motto for the project would have made a better subtitle: choose better. That's really what S. E. Harrison's new book Plutonomics: A Unified Theory of Wealth is all about. And on the score of helping us to make better wealth choices, it's a winner in a field that is currently jam-packed with also-rans.
The author, who teaches law, logic and writing in Los Angeles, immediately tells us his intentions. First, he wants to define wealth, a mission that reveals itself to be a little more difficult than you might think. But then, he suggests something even more difficult: how to gain it.
So what constitutes wealth? The author breaks it down as follows: capacity, environment, appreciation and influence are the four factors that interact to create wealth. The study of these factors and how they combine to form wealth is called "plutonomics," a word that has fallen out of favor since its inception in the 19th century.
But wealth, as it turns out, is not just something that you have; it's more like something you do. And just as cooks see their raw food evolve into edible servings over time, wealth is also an ongoing development that can be judged in the short term or the long term. Through his uniquely consummate description of wealth, the author puts his finger on what's wrong with all we're told in this area: instead of just acquiring, what we need to know is how to relate wealth to a good and happy life.
Reader Comments
"I remain shocked and awed by the intellect. . . . Extremely impressive."
Reader in Sunnyvale, CA
"[The] book is killer. Each page reads as if it were a fine wine. "
Reader in Los Angeles, CA
--David Wilkening, a former newspaperman for The Orlando Sentinel and The Detroit Free Press, currently specializes in travel and business/real estate material.
Reader Comments
"I remain shocked and awed by the intellect. . . . Extremely impressive."
Reader in Sunnyvale, CA
"[The] book is killer. Each page reads as if it were a fine wine. "
Reader in Los Angeles, CA
--Reader comments via email
