Annoying Books

Last week, there was a rare occurrance in our house: both My Prince and I were reading very annoying books at the same time.

He was reading The Price of Admission: How America's Ruling Class Buys Its Way Into Elite Colleges and Who Gets Left Outside the Gates. It was one of those books that was well written, but a painfully frustrating read simply because it shines a harsh light on something completely unacceptable happening in our nation. It was nice for me that he was reading it, because it made for an interesting conversation topic - especially when I considered it in light of all the education grants I used to write, and how various terrible programs all play into and off of one another to make an already ugly situation drastically worse. 

I was in the middle of From Here to Security: How Workplace Savings Can Keep America's Promise. This, too, was a technically well written book. Unfortunately, it was annoying for entirely different reasons. The author's premise was that to ensure adequate funding for retirement, people need something in place that will allow them to replace 80% of their peak working income every year for the rest of their lives. He is convinced that 401k plans are that 'something' and that by implementing or massively expanding (usually through government mandates) a handful of "best practices" we can largely solve the problems of elderly poverty, people running out of retirement money before they die, and America's generally absymal savings rates/status.

As much as I respected where he was coming from, I spent the entire book wanting to buy the author an entire bottle of the red pills Neo takes in the Matrix... you know, the ones that wake you up to reality? The worst part was that the author briefly (and breezily) acknowledged the major challenges/flaws in his plan right up front... and then proceeded to completely downplay them, as if they were minor instead of the ACTUAL problems that need to be addressed to fix the savings/retirement situation to begin with! To add insult to injury, he didn't offer, suggest, or so much as give the time of day to ANY retirement planning option that didn't involve making one's money available to the vagaries (and atrocities) of the stock market. As if there's no possible reason (aside from 'ridiculously unfounded' fears, which he definitely discusses) why someone wouldn't want Wall Street holding, using and controlling their money for a couple decades... *ahem*

The other thing that made the nutritionist in me see red about the whole book was his blithe references to how we're all living longer, healther lives... unless of course, you're one of those unfortuantely souls unlucky enough to have a chronic illness. Because that would totally screw up all the ratios and things that otherwise support his thesis. (Spoiler: The occurance of chronic illnesses has been skyrocketing and shows no sign of stopping.)

Anyway, I gave the book a much more professional review over at Amazon, but I thought I'd share both these titles here for your general reference. If you see them come up anywhere, or hear anyone raving about them, you've been forewarned!