City Lights is great... if you happen to live nearby. Same for about a dozen other bookstores in North America. For the rest of us who grew up far away from these few bookstores, the rise of B&N and Borders was a *huge* change for the better. Remember, back then your choices in most places were B. Daltons (at the mall) or a small, undiscounted downtown bookstore, usually with nowhere to sit.

The big box bookstores cleaned up because of how expensive, inhospitable, and limited the stores they replaced were. You can still go to City Lights or Powells, but now everyone else has access to bookstores with huge selection, reasonable prices, and comfy seating.

I read the beginning of the book. Massively dishonest. Paints Friedman as if he was licking his chops at the possibility to ram capitalism down throat of Chile using an evil dictator.

Reality is that Chile today would be the same as Zimbabwe today if Pinochet hadn't listened (at least partly) to the free market crowd.

Evil dictator + increased economic freedom > Evil dictator + socialism/populism, and it also *tends* to lead to more social freedom and democracy over time. Compare China over last 10yrs vs Venezuela's current direction.