by Rich Karlgaard
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| List Price: | $13.95 |
| Average Rating: |  |
| Lowest New Price: | $36.82 |
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Product Description
Do You Know Where Your Happiness Lies?
In The Purpose Driven Life, I consider the question “What on earth am I here for?” This book considers another important question: “Where on earth should I be living?” Is where you live worth the stress? No one is forcing you to stay where you are. It’s your choice. —From the foreword by Dr. Rick Warren, author of The Purpose Driven Life
Would you be happier if you lived somewhere else? A place where the quality of life is greater than the cost of living? Such places do exist—you just have to look a little harder to find them. The answer probably doesn’t lie in the big coastal cities: the cost-of-living gap between those urban areas and the heartland is an immense chasm. And yet the “sophistication gap” between these regions is steadily shrinking—cable tv, computers, fax machines, cell phones, and broadband Internet access are making it possible to work almost anywhere.
Forbes publisher Rich Karlgaard wanted to explore the new appeal of “flyover” country, and he decided to sky-hop around America in a single-engine Cessna, talking to people—those with a nose for entrepreneurship, a faith in technology, and the willingness to take a chance—who found their bliss in places like Green Bay, Wisconsin; Des Moines, Iowa; and Bozeman, Montana.
America offers up scores of these gems—cities and towns with a winning combination of low cost of living and high quality of life—and Karlgaard provides an in-depth look at the country’s 150 cheapest (and greatest) places to live.
Life 2.0 is the story of those who are living larger lives in smaller places, and a road map for those who want to follow their lead.
Where is your happiness? Check out Life 2.0’s “150 Cheapest Places to Live” section, featuring dozens of cities and towns that offer the good life at a great price.
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Average Customer Review:
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
 The Great Decentralization, 2007-12-29
In a nutshell - this book deals with the trend of geographic decentralization. This is a topic particularly near to my heart, because SelfReliant is actively trying to promote the kind of Internet-enabled "freedom of place" that Karlgaard describes. Life 2.0 is about realizing that you have a choice about where you live in this country, or even abroad, and that choice has largely been given to you as a result of the Internet and mobile computing.
It's charming the way Karlgaard regales the reader with stories of flying over America's heartland. He visits all the nooks and crannies of the country - and more importantly, chronicles their changing economies. The main difference he's seeing is that the 'sophistication gap' between the coasts and the heartland is actually closing. We've all been drinking from the same information pipe - so professionals drawn by vastly cheaper real estate prices are leaving their high-priced lives in coastal metro areas. A very significant trend, since it will drive down housing prices on the coasts, and relocate a significant number of people during the next few decades. How does one become one of these geo-arbitrageurs? Read Life 2.0, take a look at my company, and start charting the course for locales where you never dreamed you could have a career.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
 All Hype and Ego with a few scattered stats easily found elsewhere, 2007-06-10
I was quite disappointed with this book. Having lived on both coasts as well as Alaska and the Heartland, I was expecting a book about the quality of life in various locations as promised in the book descriptives. It's not about quality of life -- it's all about how much more a high six-figure income (if moved as is) goes in one place vs. another (readily available on dozens of web sites). If you are the founder of an enormously successful hedge fund or the software guru behind a recent IPO that broke records -- then this book is for you. It talks about others just like you that have left NYC for Idaho. It's all about how much more you can buy in Montana than you can in San Francisco - assuming you have the financial ability to fund a move away (geographically) from your current source of income. It's not about re-inventing yourself or about "2.0" of your life as a departure (something different) from 1.0. It's all about the cost of big houses and country clubs in Big City XYZ vs Beautiful Small Town XYZ. The second most dominant charactertistic of the book is the author's piloting prowess ("I make a steeply banked turn left and keep it going round for a full 180 degrees...I go for the slip....it works...not a bad piece of flying for a rookie...") What those missives have to do with the book title is beyond me. I can usually find something useful in most any piece of non-fiction, but this book is a complete waste of time unless you're interested in flying trivia (someone else's) and stories about Fortune 5 execs deciding to move.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
 Good content could do without the witty pilot narrative, 2007-04-12
The narrative on his flights around the country became distracting, but at the end of the day his points are made in a compelling way, this was the book i was hoping for when I bought it...
5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
Interesting, but a little creepy, 2006-12-01
I could relate, at first, to the author's feelings that a good salary doesn't buy much anymore on America's coasts. But after reading for a while I got pretty creeped out by how much the author is into status and competing with the Joneses. If you have to move to some ugly backwater town just so you can afford to belong to a "country club" and buy nice golf outfits, go ahead! I'd rather live in a condo in a place that has more going for it than neighbors who are transplants and care only about having a 3,000 sq ft house! Boooring. Who wants a huge house in a place where there's nothing to do!
I feel that the topic of how the middle class is suffering under oppressive home prices is a very important topic, but the author misses what matters. It's not that we need 3,000 sq ft houses! We just need something nicer than a rental apartment. Most people don't care so much about status that they're willing to live in the sticks in order to afford the ridiculous extravagances that the author seems to assume are a part of a middle class professional lifestyle: "private schools, European or tropical vacations, private club membership, a housekeeper who comes at least twice a week, a lawn crew that comes once a week, wardrobes that are contemporary, come from nice stores, and are plentiful enough to fit any occasion...serious business meetings, sports coats and golf shirts, and weekend garb for boating or fly-fishing." Come on!
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
An excellent resource, 2006-11-03
I was really looking for a book just like this in deciding where to move and I wasn't disappointed.
He does talk a fair amount about flying which wasn't as interesting to me, but it doesn't really detract from the point of the book.
If you are considering a move or particularly if you are interested in geographic arbitrage, this book goes a long way to helping you find places to investigate further.
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