Reviews for The Roman predicament

The average rating for The Roman predicament based on 2 reviews is 5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2020-03-19 00:00:00 Susan Crowley Cannot remember anything about this book. John Robb would laugh at everything in this book. Parts of it are so right and yet interpreted so wrong. Quotes: "This book asserts that, despite retrogressions that capture our attention, the world is making steady progress toward peace and economic security. It argues that as factors of labor, capital, and information triumph over the old factor of land, nations no longer need and in time will not covet attention. Instead they can concentrate on the most remunerative factors of production: high-level manufacturing and services, which depend most strongly on a highly trained labor force." "What will a world of virtual states be like? The angry and dispossessed will continue to launch isolated episodes of terrorism against other countries and their own governments. There may be biological or chemical attacks on particular countries. But in general, interstate violence should decline. In the process of downsizing and moving production outside their borders, corporations and nation-states will have to get used to relying on others. Virtual corporations need other companies' production facilities. As a result, economic relations between states will come to resemble nerves connecting heads in one place to bodies elsewhere. Producer nations will work quickly to become the brains behind emerging industries in other countries. In time, few nations will contain within their borders all the components of a technically advanced economic existence. To sever the connections between states would thus undermine the organic unit." "Critics such as Paul Ehrlich, however, contend that land will become important once again. Oil supplies will be depleted; the quantity of fertile land will decline; water will run dry. Population will rise relative to the supply of natural resources and food. This process, it is claimed, could return the world to the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, with clashes over territory once again the engine of conflict. Such a conclusion, however, is far from inevitable. The natural resources on which the world currently relies may run out, but as before, there will be substitutes. For instance, whale oil, once the most common fuel for lighting, became largely unavailable in the 1840's. The harnessing of global energy and the production of food do not depend on particular bits of fluid, soil, or rock. The question, rather, is how to release the energy contained in abundant matter." (of course he trivializes this. It would invalidate the whole book.) "For most countries, the flow of international factors of production - technology, capital, and labor - will swamp the stock of economic power at home. The state will become just one of many players in the international marketplace and will have to negotiate directly with international factors of production to solve domestic economic problems." (and in doing so will sell their populations to the highest bidder.) "They must also induce foreign capital to enter their domain. To keep such investment, national economic authorities will need to maintain low inflation, rising productivity, a strong currency, and a flexible and trained labor force. These requirements will sometimes conflict with domestic interests that want more government spending, budget deficit, and more benefits. That conflict will result in continued domestic insecurity over jobs, welfare, and medical care. Unlike the remedies applied in the insulated and partly closed economies of the past, purely domestic policies can no longer solve these problems." "Microsoft and Intel are national assets, but unlike gold, they cannot be seized and manipulated for foreign purposes without their consent. Their creative originality must be uncoerced." (bullshit. public companies can easily become the tools of the wealthy) "Military invasion and occupation no longer succeed, and countries can achieve international economic access without force. Land has also ceased to be the most important factor of production. Under these conditions international flows take on new significance. Stocks at home are no longer sufficient. Even the largest countries need flows of capital, goods, and labor to make ends meet." "While three countries moved their more labor-intensive production overseas, they did far more than this: they established a consulting role in the economic future of other nations. The knowledge they have offered is worth more than their tangible exports this year." "Such forecasts underestimated both the U.S. ability to reorganize itself industrially and the strength of its democratic regulatory system. Critics thereby entirely missed U.S. superiority in financial markets, which rests on both openness and impartiality. As we have seen, bond ratings are critical measures of honesty and fair dealing as well as financial performance. Confidence is the key, and U.S. financial management has inspired credibility."

Review # 2 was written on 2008-05-03 00:00:00 Deborah Tillberg A thorough and clear analysis of the structural forces underlying competition for individual attention in the United States, with a compelling call to action in the end.