How Migration Really Works, Hein de Haas, 2023, 451 pages, Dewey 325, ISBN 9781541604315
To the author, there's no crisis. He seems to be minimizing whHow Migration Really Works, Hein de Haas, 2023, 451 pages, Dewey 325, ISBN 9781541604315
To the author, there's no crisis. He seems to be minimizing what at least locally is traumatic.
WORDS
Migration: A change in habitual residence across administrative borders. Most administrative systems count a 6- to 12-month change in habitual residence as migration. p. ix.
Migrant: A person who lives in a place or country other than their place or country of birth. p. ix.
International migrant: (for this book) Foreign-born. (Other users of the term include children and even grandchildren of the foreign-born. This book calls such people 2nd- and 3rd-generation migrants.) p. ix.
"Pro-" vs. "anti-'' framing yields only bickering. p. 4.
Migration is normal. p. 4. It benefits some people more than others, can have downsides for some, but it's intrinsic to our world and can't be eliminated. p. 2.
MYTHS
Immigration is not as massive and transformative as we often think. p. 5.
U.S. border enforcement turned what had been a circular flow of migrants into a permanent population of 11 million unauthorized residents. By Reagan, Bush I, Clinton, Bush II, Obama, Trump, and Biden. p. 7. [Fraction of U.S. population born elsewhere rose from .06 in 1960 to .14 in 2015: https://www.wolframalpha.com/input?i=... and is nearing the 1890 peak of 15%: https://www.pewresearch.org/short-rea... ]
TRENDS
MYTH 1: MIGRATION IS AT AN ALL-TIME HIGH. p. 15.
International migration has remained low and stable. p. 16. The number of people habitually living in a country they weren't born in has stayed around 3% of global population from 1960 (93 M/3B) to 2017 (247 M/7.6 B). Plus, such counts are now more inclusive. p. 17.
[Here's the current list by country: fraction of population born elsewhere: https://www.wolframalpha.com/input?i=... .256 Australia .202 Canada .144 Germany .137 United States .033 world average .017 Japan .009 Mexico .004 India .001 China
Globally, 3% of us have migrated. Few of us have migrated to /become/ victims of financial feudalism. Those 3% have migrated largely to try to escape it. I wish them well.
The author obscures what's happening by giving us only the global average.]
97% of global population lives in its native country. Weird, in light of huge inequalities. p. 19. [People must really like living at home. And/or, it's a rare Chinese or Indian who /can/ leave.]
Moving production to where labor is cheap has lessened the need for workers to relocate. pp. 29-30.
MYTH 2: BORDERS ARE BEYOND CONTROL. p. 31.
Most unauthorized residents entered legally and overstayed their visas. p. 41.
Demand for foreign workers exceeds legal quotas. This drives migration "under ground," which enables abuse of workers. p. 41.
10.5 million, 3.2% of the U.S. population, are unauthorized residents, as of 2018. p. 35.
The U.S. doesn't prosecute illegal employers of unauthorized workers. p. 35.
BRACEROS: The U.S. Government recruited 4.5 million Mexicans for farm and rail work, 1942-1964. p. 40.
[The U.S. Government still grants visas that tie immigrants to a specific employer--making it easy for that employer to underpay and overwork the migrant. ]
MYTH 3: THE WORLD IS FACING A REFUGEE CRISIS. p. 45.
No, only .1% to .35% of world population are refugees, 1950s-2022. pp. 47-48. Down from 8% after WWII. p. 57. [Worse yet after the Toba catastrophe. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toba_... . Keep calm?] Most refugees stay in neighboring, developing, countries. p. 49-50.
8.7 million, 41% of the prewar population, fled Syria, 2012-2021. p. 56.
[The author minimizes the problem by dividing it by world population.]
Refugee flow is peaky: during a conflict, refugees flow. Afterward, there's little flow. p. 55. [Many of those refugees remain displaced.]
MYTH 4: OUR SOCIETIES ARE MORE DIVERSE THAN EVER. p. 60.
No, we've been diverse before. [Circa 1911, the Socialist Party delivered flyers in 12 languages in Milwaukee. --The Fall of Wisconsin, Dan Kaufman, 2018, p. 63. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milwa... Migrants speak their native tongue; their kids are fully bilingual; their grandchildren speak English. ]
MYTH 5: DEVELOPMENT IN POOR COUNTRIES WILL REDUCE MIGRATION. p. 78.
No, economic development gives more people the ability to migrate, and infects more people with the aspiration to migrate. So migration increases. pp. 83, 85.
MYTH 6: EMIGRATION IS A DESPERATE FLIGHT FROM MISERY. p. 93.
Migration is a rational decision requiring planning and resources. p. 96.
MYTH 7: WE DON'T NEED MIGRANT WORKERS. p. 109.
People migrate when they can get jobs. p. 110.
IMPACTS
MYTH 8: IMMIGRANTS STEAL JOBS AND DRIVE DOWN WAGES. p. 129.
Immigration is a reaction to labor shortages. p. 131.
In 1980, Fidel Castro permitted 125,000 Cubans to emigrate. This increased Miami's lower-skilled workforce by 20%. Wages and employment rates were unchanged, for those workers already there. p. 133.
MYTH 9: IMMIGRATION UNDERMINES THE WELFARE STATE. p. 145.
Tax benefits or costs of immigration range plus or minus 1 percent of gross domestic product. pp. 147-149.
MYTH 10: IMMIGRANT INTEGRATION HAS FAILED. p. 160.
Latino and Asian kids now learn English faster than German or Italian kids did in the early 1900s. p. 163. [My grandparents' part of east-central Missouri spoke German from 1848 to 1914.]
MYTH 11: MASS MIGRATION HAS PRODUCED MASS SEGREGATION. p. 180.
Class disparity is the real problem. p. 193.
MYTH 12: IMMIGRATION SENDS CRIME RATES SOARING. p. 196.
In general, immigration lowers violent crime. p. 197.
MYTH 13: EMIGRATION LEADS TO A BRAIN DRAIN. p. 209.
Most countries are relatively able to retain most of their higher-skilled citizens. p. 211.
[Puerto Rico lost 5,000 physicians, about 36% of them, from 2006 to 2016, to outmigration. --/Puerto Rico: What Everyone Needs to Know/, Jorge Duany, 2017. p. 151.]
MYTH 14: IMMIGRATION LIFTS ALL BOATS. p. 222.
No, the benefits of migration accrue disproportionately to the rich. p. 224
MYTH 15: WE NEED IMMIGRANTS TO FIX THE PROBLEMS OF AGEING SOCIETIES. p. 234.
Immigration is too small to fix the effects of ageing. p. 236.
LIES & MYTHS
MYTH 16: BORDERS ARE CLOSING DOWN. p. 249.
Immigration policies have largely become more liberal since WWII. pp. 250-252.
MYTH 17: CONSERVATIVES ARE TOUGHER ON IMMIGRATION. p. 266.
There is no left-right divide on immigration. p. 267.
MYTH 18: PUBLIC OPINION HAS TURNED AGAINST IMMIGRATION. p. 279.
Public opinion has grown more positive on immigration. In 2020, for the first time, more Americans polled said immigration should be increased rather than reduced. p. 281.
MYTH 19: SMUGGLING IS THE CAUSE OF ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION. p. 291.
Smuggling is a reaction to border controls. p. 292.
MYTH 20: TRAFFICKING IS A FORM OF MODERN SLAVERY. p. 309.
Many alleged trafficking victims who were "rescued" in Italy and flown back to Nigeria did all they could to return to Italy and resume their work. p. 311.
MYTH 21: BORDER RESTRICTIONS REDUCE IMMIGRATION. p. 326.
Border restrictions make temporary migrants permanent. p. 333.
MYTH 22: CLIMATE CHANGE WILL LEAD TO MASS MIGRATION. p. 343.
Bailout: How Washington Abandoned Main Street while Rescuing Wall Street, Neil Barofsky, 2012, 270 pages, Dewey 338.97302, ISBN 9781451684933
The authoBailout: How Washington Abandoned Main Street while Rescuing Wall Street, Neil Barofsky, 2012, 270 pages, Dewey 338.97302, ISBN 9781451684933
The author was the special inspector general for the Troubled Assets Relief Program, the 2008 Wall Street bailout.
2019 update: the $700 billion Wall Street bailout ended up costing $16 trillion. --/Money, Power, and the People: The American Struggle to Make Banking Democratic/, Christopher W. Shaw, 2019: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Top financial-institution executives know that the U.S. Government will bail them out if their bets lose. Wall Street has captured control of the U.S. Government. p. 19. [Obama had to kiss Wall Street's ring to get the campaign money to win the presidency, as Charles Gasparino details in /Bought and Paid For/: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... .] Obama filled his administration with bankers and let them give hundreds of billions of dollars to their firms to recover their losses from their fraudulent transactions. Same as George W. Bush's team did. pp. 90-95. Every secretary of the Treasury has a callous indifference to the public interest and a slavish bias toward Wall Street. As does the president who appointed him. p. 149.
PERVERSE INCENTIVE
Subprime loans earned the lender higher interest and fees than prime loans. The less chance the borrower had of repaying, the more the lender received. No one on Wall Street--rating agencies, accountants, banks, lawyers, brokers, notaries, appraisers, …--cared to look at fraud, as long as they were getting fat fees. pp. 13-16, 84-95.
WANT TO BET?
The big banks created, marketed, and sold (purportedly AAA but in fact junk) bonds they expected to plummet in value as the real estate market soured; the banks placed large bets that their bonds would tank; the banks reaped profits from their dishonest bond sales. The Bush and Obama administrations appointed the bankers to administer hundreds of billions of dollars of bailouts to their banks. pp. 91-95.
I OWE HOW MUCH?
The orgy of subprime and subsubprime lending ballooned Americans' mortgage debt from $5.3 trillion in 2001 to $10.5 trillion in 2007. p. 87. https://www.wolframalpha.com/input?i=...
USELESS GOVERNMENT
U.S. Government procedure for investigations: "adopt a narrative:" define the status quo as a success. Bury all evidence suggesting otherwise. pp. 8-9. The bailout administrators ignored the many ways fraudsters could steal the money. p. 22. The Treasury Department gave banks hundreds of billions of dollars with no verification that the banks were "healthy and viable," no oversight, no terms or conditions to comply with. pp. 71-77. Inspectors general behave as lapdogs to the agencies they're supposed to watch. p. 61. Congressmen and senators enact laws without reading them. pp. 50, 96. Senators questioning administration officials don't care what the answer is. They care only about getting their question on the news. p. 30. "I had done one of the stupidest things possible. I had trusted someone." pp. 79-80. The FBI tips off the press ahead of search warrants and arrests. p. 108. If a program is unpopular, give it a new name. p. 123.
GOVERNMENT AGENCY PRIORITIES
1. Maintaining and hopefully increasing their budget. 2. Giving the appearance of activity. 3. Not making too many waves. p. 51.
PLAY TO WIN
The only way to make things happen in Washington is to make sure that Congress and the public are aware of the problems you see, so they can then pressure the agency to resolve them. The media are key. p. 65. In Washington, being loud is a virtue p. 104.
WILL 2008 REPLAY 1929?
2008: Mortgage fraud is epidemic. p. 14.
2008: 2.3 million foreclosures. p. 4.
Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers failed due to investments in bad mortgages. pp. 17-18, 142.
September 2008: Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs are about to collapse. p. 25. If all the dominoes fall, there could be another Great Depression. p. 43.
AMERICANS LOSE
September 2007 to December 2008: people's 401(k)s lost $2.8 trillion, 1/3 of their value. p. 4.
October 2008: Congress passes Troubled Assets Relief Program (TARP), a $700 billion Wall Street bailout. pp. 1, 103-104.
October 2008: Hank Paulson, George W. Bush's secretary of the Treasury and former CEO of Goldman Sachs, /gives/ the 9 largest banks (view spoiler)[(Bank of America, Citigroup, Wells Fargo, JPMorgan Chase, State Street, Morgan Stanley, Merrill Lynch, Goldman Sachs, Bank of New York Mellon) (hide spoiler)]$125 billion, instead of using the money to buy bad mortgages, as Congress wanted. p. 26. The total was $290 billion by November. By December, AIG and Citigroup would be bailed out again, along with General Motors, Chrysler, and Bank of America. pp. 43, 102-105.
November 2008: Obama wins election.
EXECUTIVE BAILOUT
AIG gave its executives $168 million in bonuses. pp. 60, 138.
WHERE'S THE MONEY?
Banks did not lend out the money they were bailed out with. So the bailouts did not help end the recession, did not help businesses nor homeowners. pp. 72-73, 98-99.
DEMOCRATS ARE NO BETTER
January 2009: Obama becomes president. Banker Timothy Geithner, Treasury secretary, dismisses efforts to protect TARP from fraud. p. 113.
HOMEOWNERS NOT BAILED OUT
Though $50 billion was allocated ostensibly to help homeowners, it did not reduce the amounts they owed on their mortgages, and provided no relief to unemployed homeowners. It was a boon to the financial industry, in new fees they could charge. p. 128.
April 2010: Obama's troubled-assets relief program administrator, Wall Street banker Herb Allison, advises Neil Barofsky, the government's special inspector general (SIGTARP), that Barofsky has a choice: make the financial power brokers look good and get a plum job, or tell the truth and end up discredited and unemployed. pp. xi-xvi.
Welcome to the Universe: An Astrophysical Tour, Neil deGrasse Tyson, Michael A. Strauss, and J. Richard Gott, 2016, 470 pages, ISBN 9780691157245, DewWelcome to the Universe: An Astrophysical Tour, Neil deGrasse Tyson, Michael A. Strauss, and J. Richard Gott, 2016, 470 pages, ISBN 9780691157245, Dewey 523.1
Electromagnetism is mathematically equivalent to the action of gravity in an extra dimension. p. 349.
The universe began as infinitely dense, but was always infinitely large. --Michael A. Strauss, pp. 220-221.
The universe had a circumference of 3*10^-27 cm at the Big Bang. --J. Richard Gott, p. 377.
v is the speed at which a distant galaxy is fleeing from us
d is its distance from us.
Defines the parsec. 3.26 light-years. p. 58.
We can see light from quasars that was in flight for 12.5 billion years, and from galaxies 6 billion years. p. 353.
Quasars are supermassive black holes with hot gas spiraling in. p. 308.
Radius of a black hole = 2GM/c^2
p. 302.
Tells us that the Milky Way and Andromeda galaxies are bound to each other by gravity enough that they're nearing each other. Andromeda light is blueshifted. p. 217.
The Art and Science of Low-Carbohydrate Living, Jeff S. Volek and Stephen D. Phinney, 2011, 302 pages, ISBN 9780983490708, Dewey 624.2833 V882a
STARTINThe Art and Science of Low-Carbohydrate Living, Jeff S. Volek and Stephen D. Phinney, 2011, 302 pages, ISBN 9780983490708, Dewey 624.2833 V882a
STARTING
When first thrown wholly upon a diet of reindeer meat, it seems inadequate to properly nourish the system and there is an apparent weakness and inability to perform severe exertive, fatiguing journeys. But this soon passes away in the course of two or three weeks. --Frederick Schwatka, 1880. We feel and function best on sustained, not intermittent, carb restriction. pp. 237-238.
LIFELONG If a low-carb-adapted diabetic patient "breaks the diet" by eating even transient and/or modest amounts of refined carbs, all the hard-won benefits can disappear, and don't reappear for 3-7 days back on low-carb. pp. 203, 214-215, 244-245.
CARBOHYDRATE INTOLERANCE Insulin resistance is carbohydrate intolerance. Just say no to carbs. pp. 174, 186-203. Also known as metabolic syndrome, defined as 3 or more of: * Waist circumference ≥ 40 inches (men) or ≥ 35 inches (women) * Fasting triglycerides ≥ 150 mg/dl * HDL-C, High-density-lipoprotein cholesterol, < 40 mg/dl (men) or < 50 mg/dl (women) * Blood pressure ≥ 130/85 mm Hg or on meds for it * Fasting glucose ≥ 100 mg/dl or on meds for it. pp. 175, 192-193.
SODIUM, POTASSIUM, MAGNESIUM All carbohydrate-restricted diets make the kidneys dump sodium. p. 149. Absent sufficient sodium, your body jettisons potassium too. You get irregular heartbeats and muscle cramps. So get plenty of salt and potassium. Add 2-3 grams of sodium per day, such as 2 bouillon cubes. p. 241. Broth is good. One teaspoon salt per quart. p. 150. When you boil meat, 45% of its potassium comes out in the broth. Leafy greens and broth are good magnesium sources. p. 153. If you have muscle cramps, take 3 slow-release magnesium tablets daily for 20 days. Do not take magnesium if you have kidney problems. p. 244.
PUMP YOU UP Resistance training (such as weightlifting) is necessary to maintain lean body mass on a calorie-restricted diet. pp. 125-128. (view spoiler)[ Sedentary people lost 69% as fat, 31% as lean. Those on endurance training 50 min. 3x/wk lost 78% as fat, 22% as lean. Those on endurance training as above plus resistance training 40 min. 3x/wk lost 97% as fat, 3% as lean. (hide spoiler)]
EXERCISE Exercise is a wellness tool. Exercise is not a weight-loss tool. A fat person should first reduce carbs. Long runs or long bike rides can wait until weight has been lost. When fat people exercise regularly, their resting metabolism SLOWS. So instead of losing 10 pounds per 350 miles run or 1000 miles cycled, they lose only 2 to 7 pounds. And risk joint damage. pp. 242-243.
CARBS Carbs increase insulin; insulin sequesters fat in fat cells, and stimulates hunger. pp. ii, 78, 107, 143, 195.
INSULIN RESISTANCE Glucose can't enter (nonbrain) cells without insulin and cells' sensitivity to it. p. 75. Hundreds of millions of people are insulin-resistant, including about 25% p. 76 or 34% p. 173 of U.S. adults.
Most people whose muscle cells are insulin-resistant are fat, as the pancreas floods the blood with insulin, which fat cells stay sensitive to and imprison the fat. p. 80. If fat cells become insulin-resistant, they release fats that then deposit in the muscles and liver. A hot mess. pp. 181-189.
LOW-CARB Ketogenic 75-to-85%-fat, zero-to-10%-carbohydrate, 15-to-20%-protein diets improve insulin sensitivity. pp. 33, 76-79, 86-87, 123-126, 148, 156, 163, 186-203, 207-210, meals 231-235, 238-239. These percentages are by calories, not grams--BUT, what's important is limiting daily carb grams, to less than about 50. p. 109. (view spoiler)[Peanut butter that's 16 g fat, 7 g carbs, 8 g protein per 32 g is (16*9, 7*4, 8*4)/(144 + 28 + 32) = 70.6% fat, 13.6% carb, 15.7% protein. https://www.smuckers.com/peanut-butte... https://www.wolframalpha.com/input?i=.... (hide spoiler)]
KETOGENESIS On 50 grams (200 calories) or less of carbs per day, the liver makes ketones, that in a few weeks rise to 1 to 3 millimolar concentration in the blood: most of the brain's fuel is these ketones. p. 33, 199-201.
SATIETY An inpatient study of fat type-2 diabetics: one week of eating a balanced diet to satiety, followed by the same foods but limiting carbs to 20 grams (80 calories) per day. Energy intake dropped from 3100 to 2100 calories per day, all due to the missing carbs. Hunger, satisfaction, and energy level did not change. p. 163.
INFLAMMATION Insulin resistance increases inflammation. And conversely, in a vicious circle. Inflammation is an immune response to carbohydrate, in carbohydrate-intolerant people. pp. 185-191.
FATS Avoid soybean, corn, sunflower and cottonseed oils. p. 240.
KETOACIDOSIS Type-1 diabetics need insulin injections to control blood-fat levels: overproduction of ketones in type-1 diabetics is life-threatening ketoacidosis. This is a danger only if the pancreas can't make the tiny amount of insulin needed to limit fatty-acid release from fat cells. p. 80.
CONVENTIONAL WISDOM Conventional wisdom changes with the deaths of the experts who touted the wrong idea. pp. 177-179.
/THE/ CAUSE? Why did your bath overflow? Was it because you forgot to turn off the faucet, or was the drain clogged? p. 178. Metabolic disease results from a collection of simultaneous problems. p. 189.
A Brief History of Equality, Thomas Piketty, 2021 in French, 2022 in English, 274 pages, Dewey 305.09, ISBN 9780674273559. Translated by Steven RandalA Brief History of Equality, Thomas Piketty, 2021 in French, 2022 in English, 274 pages, Dewey 305.09, ISBN 9780674273559. Translated by Steven Randall.
Abrogate the untaxed-free-movement-of-capital treaties. Tax the rich.
Big changes in law and society have been occurring regularly since 1780: it's worth saying what changes must happen, and how. p. 119. It is both desirable and possible to tax the rich and expand the welfare state. p. 45.
Chapter 7: Democracy, Socialism, and Progressive Taxation
Bankers, financiers, investors, and money managers planned and lobbied from the 1940s to 1980s, and succeeded in pushing through international treaties that give them a nearly-sacred right to enrich themselves at any country's expense, then whisk the capital away, tax-free, duty-free, regulation-free. pp. 170-174. This state of affairs must be undone to keep the world from being a colony owned and exploited by the super-rich.
Chapter 1: The Movement toward Equality
Progress exists. In 1820, world average life expectancy at birth was 26 years; in 2020 it's 72. Literacy among people age 15 or older rose from 12% to 85%. pp. 16-17.
A better indicator than GDP is "national income," which equals "gross domestic product" minus depreciation (such as depletion of natural resources), plus or minus net income or loss to the rest of the world. Selling off extracted minerals adds zero to national income. p. 23.
Chapter 2: The Slow Deconcentration of Power and Property
The top 0.001% of French fortunes (500, out of 50 million adults) totaled 6% of all that could be owned in 2020, up from 2% in 2010 (6,000 times average wealth, up from 2,000 times ten years ago). p. 44.
From 1910 to 2020, the wealthiest 1% of the French lost a 31% share of total wealth: 55% down to 24%. The 50th-to-90th percentiles gained a 25% share: 13% in 1910; 38% in 2020. All of this transfer was pre-1985: the middle class has been slowly losing, the dominant class quickly gaining share since then. pp. 31, 42, 44.
Chapter 3: The Heritage of Slavery and Colonialism
Forests covered 30-40% of Europe (UK to Denmark to Prussia, Spain to France to Italy) in 1500. By 1800, it was down to about 10% (16% France, 4% Denmark). p. 50.
China's and India's share in worldwide manufacturing, 53% in 1800, fell to 5% in 1900 due to protectionism by Europe. pp. 58-59.
The British East India Company and the Dutch East Indes Company were militarized robbers. p. 60.
Chapter 4: The Question of Reparations
Slaves (90% of Haitians) received 20% of the product of their labor (in food and clothing); the nonenslaved 10% appropriated 80%, in 1789. pp. 82-83.
Current wealth distribution among and within countries bears the deep mark of the slaveholding, colonial past. p. 93.
We must ensure egalitarian access to education, employment, and property. p. 93. Tax multinationals and billionaires: they got rich on the backs of the poor, who deserve and need a share. p. 94.
Chapter 5: Revolution, Status, and Class
Hundreds of French peasant and laborer rebellions, 1730-1789, led to the cancellation of nobles' privileges--but to strengthening the rights of property owners. pp. 5, 95-99.
In Sweden in 1871, there were dozens of districts where one wealthy man cast the majority of votes. Then in the 1920s, Social Democrats took control, adopted one-person-one-vote, progressive taxation, and greatly increased social services.
Everything is changeable. p. 107.
Chapter 6: The Great Redistribution 1914-1980
Two world wars and a great depression, 1914-1945, overturned the power relationships between labor and capital in the West. Very-progressive income and inheritance taxes reduced the wealth and power of the few, and brought opportunities and prosperity to the many. p. 121. The U.S. top federal income tax rate was over 90% from 1951-1963, and 70% until 1980. p. 131. The U.S. top marginal inheritance tax rate was 70% until 1980. p. 132. Taxing the rich, and repudiating and/or inflating away the public debt, freed the West from the yoke of indebtedness to the rich, until 1980. These were political fights that were won in midcentury, and must be refought and rewon to achieve a decent life for the many. p. 149. Total private wealth in Western Europe was six to eight years of national income from 1870-1914, two to three years from 1950 to 1980, now back up to five to six years in 2020. p. 141. Peter Lindert, Growing Public, 2004.
Chapter 8: Real Equality against Discrimination
Gendered, social, and ethno-racial discrimination is endemic nearly everywhere. p. 175. Governments spend more on rich kids' educations than on poor kids'. pp. 176-184. Ditto infrastructure and government services generally. p. 196. Women receive 38% of the payroll in France, men 62%, in 2020. (62/38=1.63; 38/62=.61) p. 185. The average income of blacks in the U.S. is 56% that of whites (1/.56=1.79), as of 2018. p. 192.
Chapter 9: Exiting Neocolonialism
National-government revenues were 13.7% of GDP in the poorest third of the world, including Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, in 2022-2019; 40% in the richest third, including North America and Europe. Nigeria, Chad, and Central African Republic government revenues were only 6-8% of GDP. Not enough for essential functions. pp. 209-210.
The largest financial portfolios worldwide are placed largely in tax havens. p. 211. Transnational billionaires are richer than states, much as in the French Revolution. p. 13.
Global-north investors continue to plunder the labor and resources of poorer regions. pp. 212-213.
Fortunes of over 10 million euros total half of global GDP. p. 215.
The impoverishment of the poor has been the source of enrichment of the rich. p. 216.
Chapter 10: Toward a Democratic, Ecological, and Multicultural Socialism
The Chinese government owns 30% of all that can be owned in China. Not housing, but most of industry. Western governments' net ownership is negative, thanks to a refusal to tax the rich, instead borrowing from them. pp. 231-235, 240.
The authoritarian, antidemocratic Chinese government expresses its official positions daily in /Global Times/: https://www.globaltimes.cn/ p. 233.
Piketty's other books:
Capital in the 21st Century (French 2013, English 2014) shows that, when the rate of return on capital exceeds the growth rate of the economy, inequality grows without bound. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...
Capital and Ideology (French 2019, English 2020) shows that, since 1789, supposed justifications for inequality have been successively revealed as false, and abandoned. https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
A Crash Course in Mathematica, Stephan Kaufman, 1999, 200 pages, for Mathematica version 3, ISBN 3764361271, Library-of-Congress QA 76.95 K3913 1999 SA Crash Course in Mathematica, Stephan Kaufman, 1999, 200 pages, for Mathematica version 3, ISBN 3764361271, Library-of-Congress QA 76.95 K3913 1999 Steenbock Library. Translated from German by Katrin Gygax. Originally /Mathematica--kurz und bündig/, 1998.
This is a good primer. The basics this book covers are still current.
Mathematica: The Student Book, Stephen Wolfram, 1994, for Mathematica version 2, 501 pp. Library-of-Congress QA76.95.B43 1994 Steenbock Library. ISBN Mathematica: The Student Book, Stephen Wolfram, 1994, for Mathematica version 2, 501 pp. Library-of-Congress QA76.95.B43 1994 Steenbock Library. ISBN 0201554798.
All this content is probably in Stephen Wolfram's 2005 The Mathematica Book, 5th edition, for Mathematica version 5.
However, the smaller, older book, may be easier to find what you need in.
Also, Wolfram here explicitly tells us of key features that aren't apparent elsewhere, such as:
"The standard notebook interface for /Mathematica/ allows you to specify certain cells of /Mathematica/ input as being "initialization cells". These cells can contain definitions and results that are automatically set up again whenever you open the notebook." Well, hallelujah! That will be very handy, not to have to re-evaluate every expression in the notebook every time I reopen the file. This 1994 book says it on p. 278, section 29.1. I hadn't seen this in any other documentation.
City: A Story of Roman Planning and Construction, David Macaulay, 1974, 112 pages, ISBN 039519492X, Dewey 711.409
Planning and building a 92-acre (720-City: A Story of Roman Planning and Construction, David Macaulay, 1974, 112 pages, ISBN 039519492X, Dewey 711.409
Planning and building a 92-acre (720-yard x 620-yard or .4 mile x .35 mile, about one-seventh of a square mile) city from scratch in first-century-BCE-to-first-century-CE Roman Italy. p. 13 For a population of up to about 50,000. A 9-by-8 grid of mostly 80-yard-square (1/22 mile) blocks. About 10 blocks are devoted to public areas, leaving about 8 square yards per person. The full city would have a population density of 350,000 people per square mile https://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i... Compare: the Imbaba neighborhood of Cairo https://peterfromtexas.tumblr.com/ima..." , 8 square km (3.2 sq. mi.), 1.4 million population, 460,000 people per square mile https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...https://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i...
Building code: no privately-owned building could be higher than twice the width of the street on which it stood. Lets sunlight reach the street. p. 14. Sidewalks are arcades.
Shows how to build roads, walls, tunnel vaults, aqueducts, sewers, buildings; how to grind grain into flour, press olives for oil.
An Introduction to Modern Mathematical Computing with Mathematica, Jonathan M. Borwein & Matthew P. Skerritt, 2012, for Mathematica version 8, 224 pagAn Introduction to Modern Mathematical Computing with Mathematica, Jonathan M. Borwein & Matthew P. Skerritt, 2012, for Mathematica version 8, 224 pages, ISBN 9781461442523, Library-of-Congress QA 76.95 B67 2012. Originally An Introduction to Modern Mathematical Computing with Maple, 2011, revised for Mathematica. Publisher's website: https://link.springer.com/book/10.100... Jonathan M. Borwein (1951-2016) wikipedia page: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonat...
As of 2022, Mathematica version 13 is current.
This is a good tutorial, very readable, showing some unexpected ways of doing things. The focus is on using Mathematica to explore number theory, calculus, and linear algebra, at a college-freshman level. Many typographical errors.
A set operation on a single list deletes duplicates and sorts it: Union[{3, 1, 2, 2, 1}] {1, 2, 3} https://www.wolframalpha.com/input?i=... Intersection does the same, on a single list. Wolfram Alpha doesn't understand Complement as Mathematica does. pp. 9-10.
"One must always keep one's wits about one when using a computer algebra system (of course this is true when reading a book or taking a bus too)." p. 92.
ERRATA (following are correct) p. vii penultimate sentence: this book uses Mathematica.
p. 18: input 112 should read, Sum[k^(-2), {k, 1, Infinity}]
p. 18, penultimate line: 2^(17)
p. 20 1st paragraph, line 2: 17 times
p. 33, second paragraph: the function computes whether the number is perfect (sum of all divisors equals twice the number).
p. 33, output 208, and p. 34, output 222: False: 27 is not perfect. (28 is perfect.)
p. 36, input 236, the final function is AmicableQ[n, m].
p. 38, input 240 := findAmicable[100000]
p. 46, input 272 needs //Timing appended.
p. 48, inputs 282 need semicolons before the // to suppress output as shown.
p. 87, output 22 = (Pi^2)/6
p. 88, input 23, and p. 89, inputs 24 and 25: the = should be a minus sign.
p. 88, input 23: the upper limit should be +10.
pp. 88, 89 plots: Mathematica version 8 plotted an artificial vertical line at the x = 2 vertical asymptote. Mathematica 12.2 and wolframalpha.com correctly omit this artifact. https://www.wolframalpha.com/input?i=...
p. 89, input 25 must be written With[{p = 1/(x^3 - 2 x^2)}, {Limit[p, x -> -Infinity], Limit[p, x -> 0], Limit[p, x -> 2], Limit[p, {x -> Infinity}] }]
p. 89, Mathematica version 8 output 25 gave a false limit as x -> 2, claiming Infinity, which holds only from the right; the limit from the left is -Infinity. Mathematica 12.2 correctly gives {0, -Infinity, Indeterminate, 0}.
p. 91 says the plot is of both the function and the list. Only the list is shown.
p. 96 Integrate[x^2, {x, 1, 3}] = 26/3 p. 96 Integrate[x, {x, 1, 3}] = 4
p. 139 input 2 must be written MatrixForm[{a, b, c}] to give output 2.
p. 141, paragraph after [17] should read, "... in the case of matrices it will be matrix multiplication."
Same paragraph, change "begin" to "being."
p. 141, output 18 should read, a + 2 b + 3 c
p. 143, penultimate paragraph, x and b are vectors.
p. 148, inputs 44 and 46: in each, the second r1 should be r2.
Thomas Ray
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