"... 14,000 page tax code which is basically institutionalized corruption" - Fareed Zakaria

[Bozita]

That's one of the many notable lines that made this Charlie Rose Show truly fascinating.

Catch the replay this evening on Bloomberg.

http://www.bloomberg.com/tv/shows/charlie-rose/

Charlie Rose Preview: Fareed Zakaria - 6/1/2011
TONIGHT on Charlie Rose @ 8p & 10p ET, Fareed Zakaria, editor-at-large at Time magazine and host of CNN's "Fareed Zakaria GPS," discusses his book "The Post American World (Release 2.0)," an update on his 2008 bestseller about the global shift of economic and political powers.



Or watch it online here:
http://www.charlierose.com/

[JDPriestly]

1. I tried to read Zakaria's book

but could not finish it.

Zakaria's America is not mine. He was born 21 years after I was to the upper caste in India. I was born in rural America to a well educated, but poor family.

Zakaria came to the US to attend exclusive, ivy-league schools. His impressions of America are based on the experiences he had there. He does not know and cannot respect ordinary Americans like me. He does not understand us. I am personalizing this because he generalizes everything and misses the personal in his sweeping statements.

In short, I think he is a snob, and it showed in his book.

Zacaria, in my view, does not understand American values: equal opportunity, helping each other out, working together to build our communities. He has never appreciated that side of America. His comments about America are irrelevant to me.

Zacaria's views on the world are interesting. That is really his field. If he did not make judgments about the US, he could be a great source of information.

[truedelphi]

3. Thank you for sharing that impression.

A long time ago, early seventies, I had a friend who married a guy from India. She managed to live in his country for eighteen months before calling it quits.

Too much caste affliction and prejudice. And then the whole patriarchal thing.

It would be great if there was a current era Studs Terkel, writing about the middle class as it falls off the lower rungs. Instead we have all these Ivy League-ers telling us how reality is and how it works. And the story they tell usually doesn't benefit anyone of the working and middle class.

[Bozita]

2. Bloomberg TV - 8pm EDT