Looking busy has become a badge of honor for the moneyed class.
Could an increase in gasoline taxes help curb America's dependence on foreign oil?
PROGRAMMING THE UNIVERSE:
A Quantum Computer Scientist Takes On the Cosmos.
By Seth Lloyd.
Knopf. 221 pp. $25.95
The Social Security system gave birth to the modern idea of retirement as a golden age of life after work. That concept was never very carefully thought out, and now that it is more than 70 years old it looks ripe for retirement.
A one-time neocon oracle contemplates the end of an era.
Dignified retirement is still a cherished part of theAmerican dream, but for some that dream is onlya fantasy. A rickety retirement system means moreU.S. workers have to stay on and on at the job.
YOU MUST SET FORTH AT DAWN:
A Memoir.
By Wole Soyinka.
Random House.
528 pp. $26.95
While America dithers, Sweden and other countries have pioneered creative and surprisingly hard-headed reforms to cope with the mountain of retirement costs that lie ahead.
Humanitarian aid organizations have gotten more political in recent years, sometimes at the cost of their principles.
Americans enter the brave new world of retirement with a lot of silly fantasies. And, says this writer, thank goodness for that.