The Best-Laid Plans: How Government Planning Harms Your Quality of Life, Your Pocketbook, and Your Future (Hardcover)

by Randal O'Toole (Author)
Key Phrases: peak oil, capita driving, nonmarket trust, Forest Service, United States, Los Angeles (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review
O'Toole documents example after example of government planning gone hideously awry. He demolishes the widely held belief that government planners are somehow smarter or more capable of managing the future than market forces. Yet despite all evidence to the contrary, many Americans still expect the planners to miraculously get it right the next time around. Better to fire the planners and let free people, free minds and free markets use the genius of their freedom." --The Washington DC Examiner Editorial Board -- The Washington DC Examiner

"A hard-hitting, fact-filled, well-written volume. Fascinatingly, Mr. O'Toole explains why elected officials tend to favor government planning. Namely, they are happy to turn over hot issues to the planning bureaucracy rather than make the decisions -- and take the heat -- themselves." --William H. Peterson, The Washington Times -- The Washington Times

"O'Toole presents an across-the-board indictment of government planning. Whether zoning suburbs, designing rail systems or determining how much timber to cut in national forests, he says, federal, state and local planners are trying to simplify dizzyingly complex problems. Inevitably, they focus on one or two resources, fall prey to planning fads and succumb to pressure from interest groups." --Alan Cooperman, Washington Post Book World -- Washington Post Book World

As O'Toole shows, whether it's failed "smart growth" schemes, oppressive zoning policies, expensive light-rail boondoggles or mismanagement of public forests, government planners have caused us trouble and cost us freedoms. Their misguided, top-down, faddish rules and regulations have brought us higher housing prices, more-crowded roads and forests that are susceptible to diseases and catastrophic fires. O'Toole says it's time to liberate society from planners' control. -- Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, 10/28/07, Bill Steigerwald

Product Description
Drawing on 30 years of experience reviewing hundreds of government plans, Randal O'Toole shows that, thanks to government planners, American cities are choked with congestion, major American housing markets have become unaf-fordable, and the cost of government infrastructure is spiraling out of control. The book makes the case for repeal of federal planning laws and closure of gov-ernment planning offices. Every American who worries about the insidious growth of the Nanny State must read this book.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 276 pages
• Publisher: Cato Institute (September 25, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1933995076
• ISBN-13: 978-1933995076
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.8 x 1.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #322,194 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

27 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Why government planning fails., November 12, 2007

By	Donald N. Anderson (Anchorage, Alaska) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

In his 48 chapters O'Toole covers a wide range of government planning efforts. Rather than a complaint only about the disastrous consequences of a specific government planning effort, he shows why such efforts are doomed by the very incentives that motivate government.

He has many years of first-hand exposure to the Congressionally mandated planning process for our national forests. He argues that the planning process has wasted over a billion dollars and severely impeded the management of those public lands. It has defocused the Forest Service so badly that they are marginally effective.

He description of the various fads that run through the ranks of urban planners are sufficient to suggest they should be called congestion enhancers. Many urban plans in the guise of "traffic calming" actually make congestion worse in the hope that people will chose a high density lifestyle. Like most urban planning this runs counter to peoples wishes. It just makes commutes more time consuming , increases gas consumption, and increases pollution.

"Smart Growth" is anything but smart and relies on substituting planners pipe dreams for the citizens personal plans and cost sensitive traffic engineering.

He includes a number of examples from Portland, Oregon where urban growth boundaries have run home costs up enough that many people settle in Washington instead. When citizens voted overwhelming against more light rail, Metro chose alternate financing and decided to build anyway. That same Metro opines "Congestion signals positive urban development."

His chapters on "The Rail Transit Hoax" and "The Benefits of the Automobile" are worth the whole cost of the book. There have been so many invalid cost comparisons that one can only assume some promoters of rail and transit are willing to lie to get even close to the cost parameters of personal transportation.

He spends 6 chapters explaining the reasons government planning fails. The result is incredibly higher costs, and often a solution more dangerous to the citizen.

His final 9 chapters suggest replacements for government planning and ways Congress could dramatically improve the management of those public functions that remain in government.

This brief outline just lightly touches on a few of the many topics that O'Toole so ably discusses.

Every legislator should read this book! The information in this book will help every citizen hold their government realistically accountable.

7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A top pick for any college-level political science or American history collection., December 4, 2007

By	Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

Government planners claim to know all, from how individuals should be living their lives to how far to live from work and how much money to make, population distribution and more. THE BEST-LAID PLANS: HOW GOVERNMENT PLANNING HARMS YOUR QUALITY OF LIFE, YOUR POCKETBOOK, AND YOUR FUTURE refutes these claims, offering damning evidence on government planning gone awry - and what to do about it. Theory blends with case studies to create an analysis perfect for college-level classroom debate, making THE BEST-LAID PLANS a top pick for any college-level political science or American history collection.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Reality always wins, planned or not, January 7, 2009

By	Eva F. Kosinski (Colorado) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Gets a little repetitious, but the patterns he's pointing out are there. This is a great way for folks to understand the concept of unintended consequences in heavy handed planning. Real case studies of how things work out, not just the hoped for results (which is usually all we ever hear) show what really happens and how reall harm can result from government planning. With the last 8 years of top-down attempts to manage every aspect of our lives, Best Laid Plans is a new way to look at problems and find solutions free of the political pitfalls and elitist ideologies sp often found in planning depts.