The Farmer From Merna

The Farmer from Merna

The Farmer from Merna

An engaging, inspiring biography of George J. Mercherle that details his struggle—and ultimate success—to bring low-cost, honest auto insurance to the farming people of Illinois A typically Midwestern success story, A Farmer from Merna tells the inspiring tale of an Illinois farmer who conceived a brand-new plan to help fellow Illinoisans: build a business that would bring low-cost, no-frills-attached automobile insurance to protect thousands. Mercherle struggled to get his business established, and could never have imagined the exponential growth of his venture. His local automobile insurance company blossomed into a gigantic business with offices all over the United States: the State Farm Insurance Companies of Bloomington, Illinois. A Farmer from Merna is a highly readable book about a man who never paused in his ceaseless crusade to bring low-cost protection to an ever-expanding number of people, a man devoted to an ideal, who lived to see the ripe maturity of the fruits of his pioneering efforts.

THE LOGIC OF COLLECTIVE ACTION

This book develops an original theory of group and organizational behavior that cuts across disciplinary lines and illustrates the theory with empirical and historical studies of particular organizations. Applying economic analysis to the subjects of the political scientist, sociologist, and economist, Mancur Olson examines the extent to which individuals who share a common interest find it in their individual interest to bear the costs of the organizational effort.