Where Too Much Money Is a Bad Thing

The Mouse on Wall Street by Leonard Wibberley
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Another light, witty book in the Mouse That Roared series, poking fun at concerns of the Sixties. Nuclear war in the first; the space race in the second; and runaway inflation and consumerism in this one.

I couldn't work out whether the author meant for us to go along with the argument contained in the plot--that working people are better off relatively poor because they have no idea how to handle money without running up debt and crashing the economy--or if we're supposed to see it as satire going the exact opposite way. (Maybe he meant neither. That'd be clever.) As a proud aristocrat, Lord Mountjoy displays an attitude toward workers that is so paternalistic and condescending that he's ridiculous, which feels like direct comment on conservative economic intuitions, but his perspective proves to be the "correct" one in the end. How deep does the satire go? Or is it parody?

I dunno.

When a windfall gets divvied up among the small population of Grand Fenwick, it disrupts their normal economy. The people don't just spend but overspend, buying stuff they don't need until they're borrowing money and going into debt. I'm not sure that's how it would work, but for comedy, I guess it's fine. What I don't understand is why the government didn't consider using the money for public works--infrastructure, scholarships, endowment funds--but I guess that stuff's not funny.

Anyway, it's a pleasant read without any real-world angst, so in tone it's closer to a comic book than a novel for me. A nice change. And it was a pleasure to re-read these after whew like 40 years... It's a taste of melancholy that's a little more sweet than bitter.

YMMV. :)

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