Title: iEmployment: A Voter Guide to Economic Recovery

Author: Charles Cantoni

Subject: Non-Fiction

Release Date: Available Now

Reviewer: Charles Franklin

Author Charles Cantoni describes his new book, iEmployment: A Voter’s Guide to Economic Recovery, as a helpful, educational guide for voters to ensure that they’ve got an understanding of what needs to happen in our government to bring about an economic recovery. While this book certainly does that, it also offers so much more. Cantoni carefully explains why the United States is in an economic downturn, and its effects on employment. He begins by describing the tech bubble and the housing bubble, and later goes on to explain how outsourcing and the loss of manufacturing has created a somewhat “impoverished” America. Cantoni breaks down the concept of a “living wage” and how that, coupled with other economic and business solutions, could truly help bring about real economic prosperity to our country again.

With current high rates of unemployment/underemployment, this book is as timely as it is enlightening. The writing is clear, well-researched and organized so that it’s easy to understand each concept. The only downfall to this book is that it doesn’t actually come with a primer on which government roles are more impactful than others, and which current candidates have the views described in this book. (Perhaps in election years Mr. Cantoni can provide supplemental guides to assist U.S. citizens in voting appropriately?) And though the book does promote a clear understanding of what needs to be done to turn the economy around, there isn’t much direction about what personal actions can help make a difference. It would be terrific to see iEmployment taught in every high school’s civics and/or economics class, so that students can begin entering the workforce with this kind of economic knowledge. (Certainly this should be a must in college courses!)

In 2013, there seems to be an odd misunderstanding that free market capitalism is a bad thing, and socialism is better. iEmployment clearly shows us that it’s not. Its audience appeal is wide but I absolutely recommend this book to anyone who is unemployed, underemployed or involved in community and/or government politics. Job creation and economic revival is essential to the health of our country. iEmployment is rich with facts, statistics and riveting examples (the list of outsourced products from well-known brands was startling!) that help to support each topic and concern. If every American citizen can understand what’s broken in our current economy as well as what needs to be done to fix it, then perhaps we can all join together to ensure our country’s leaders understand that, too. Kudos to Mr. Cantoni for a well-written and extremely relevant book!