This is a book I couldn't have understood without my time spent in Batu Kawa, East Malaysia. Even still, much of the statistical math calculations turned me off to the reading (and I still have no idea what a hedge fund is). And ironically, I recognize that by the world standards many living in the Batu Kawa neighborhood would actually be considered "well-off."What struck me most, was the idea that as long as people want to be rich -- millions of others will have to be poor. Not just poor; destitute.
It's inevitable, and that made this book very depressing. Yet the globalization gap is so fascinating I just couldn't stop reading (even the chapters about hedge funds which I so clearly did not understand). Economically, the impact we all have on each other is much more pressing than our impact environmentally, even though the two co-exist.
In short, I disapprove of the free market and capitalism more than I did when I set out reading this book. By comparison, before I felt disapproval, after I feel disdain. And still, I feel deflated. The realization that there is no conceivable way to ever educate my fellow country men on the matter to point of real change is overwhelming. Even if that were possible, convincing rulers of developing countries to follow suit is even more unfeasible. A solution is unworkable.
The only hope is to make sure that every human being have healthy drinking water, basic health care, and mere literacy. How can such simple things be so hard for the world to achieve?
Wealth.
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