Customer Reviews

The 5 Big Lies About American Business: Combating Smears Against the Free-Market Economy

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Corporate America has been labeled as a vast wasteland of bureaucracy, red tape and micromanagement; led by pompous CEOs who have little or no regard for their employees; who forsake long term success for short term profitability. And that's on a good day.

I witnessed much of those things, after spending 26 years in the often hostile environment of corporate America; however, the free-market system that so many have criticized in recent years, is still the best system for creating economic prosperity for civilization, and you can take that to the bank with you; assuming you can find one that's still open for business in these troubled times.

Seriously, our recent financial troubles---from the real estate crash of '08 and the subsequent global economic meltdown, to the failures of many of Wall Street's biggest names---have been chronicled in many books; but the underlying causes had nothing to do with the system, per se; it's more a failure of incompetent and misguided individuals, from all sectors of business and government, who did too little to prevent the meltdown; and much to prolong the agony. Hopefully, the lessons learned from the many fiascos that took place over the past couple of years, will help us avert a similar fate in the future.

American business is flawed, but is still capable of rebounding; indeed, the recovery appears well under way; with good management in place, the system provides value for the consumer and a healthy work environment for its employees; and it works best with minimal government interference. History has proven that time and time again.

This particular book, written by Michael Medved, helps clear the air on some (five) of the "big lies" about American business. Some of the misconceptions may be applicable to poorly run enterprises; for the vast majority of businesses attempting to thrive in a free-market economy, it's a bunch of hogwash.

I'd also recommend reading some other optimistic books on the subject of capitalism that have been recently published; a couple of my favorites: The Genius of the Beast: A Radical Re-Vision of Capitalism & How Capitalism Will Save Us: Why Free People and Free Markets Are the Best Answer in Today's Economy.

Michael seems to quote a lot from other writers. I was only able to read about half of this book since although I agree with his point of view, I did get a little bored with his subject. Where he talks about his personal life I found somewhat interesting, especially since I listen to his radio show fairly frequently.

As I stated in my other review of his "10 big lies" book, I often sigh at the great 'what could have been book' that Michael could have written had he spent more time pursuing such a book. That is, a historical book with real substance. Instead we are left with mere superficial current event/contemporary types of books that will be long forgotten in ten years. But perhaps it is just as well, since Mike is so effective and influential as a radio talk show host.

Given all that is going on in Washington at the moment, this book couldn't be more appropriate. The arguements presented by the author are coherent and sufficiently supported by facts. Good job!

During the financial crisis of 2008 and its attendant recession, many in America and around the world denounced our capitalist system--they posited that capitalism causes more misery than progress and that the U.S. should move toward a system with much greater state intervention.

The free-market system needed persuasive defenders in the aftermath of the panic, and Michael Medved stepped up to the plate by writing "The 5 Big Lies About American Business." The Left asserted then that the 2008-09 downturn meant the death of capitalism, and commonly asserts that when the rich get richer, the poor get poorer; that business executives are overpaid and corrupt; that big business is bad and small business is good; and that government is more fair and reliable than business. In this volume, Medved ably demolishes these leading calumnies launched against American business and capitalism.

Medved uses numerous examples from U.S. history to make his points, as when he asserted that it was our economic strength that led in great part to our past military successes. And if it is true that when the rich get richer the poor get poorer, how have living standards improved unimaginably for all Americans, not just the rich, since the end of the eighteenth century?

As the author states, to succeed in business, businessmen must deliver a needed or desired service at a fair price--and when they do, jobs are created for millions, new products and technologies are created, living standards skyrocket, and the society becomes more prosperous and powerful. Philanthropy on the part of big businessmen is great, but few things are more noxious than to hear some self-righteous liberal hiss that businessmen need to "give something back," as if they have grown wealthy by exploiting society instead of by benefiting it greatly.

On the issue of business, taxes, and income, there has always been more than a little hypocrisy and misinformation anyway--who can forget Hillary Clinton taking a big bonus in 1992 (under the lower Bush 41 tax rates) instead of 1993, with full knowledge that her husband planned on raising top tax rates as soon as he was sworn in as president? The Left also incessantly talks about hammering "the top 1 percent," but as Medved pointed out recently on his national radio show, the top 1 percent of earners take home 20 percent of gross income, but pay 39 percent of income taxes. The top 1 percent also pay very nearly as much (39 percent of the total) in income taxes as do the bottom 95 percent (41 percent of the total). It is simply asinine to suggest that the wealthy do not pay their fair share of taxes.

Liberals also have a rather nasty habit of thinking that they know better than businessmen themselves as to what businessmen should do, as when an Obama administration official earlier this summer told corporate heads to "quit whining and start hiring"--incredibly, liberals never see themselves as whiners when they get upset when their targets tell them that they can manage their businesses and make their decisions much better than the government can.

Medved also addresses topics such as outsourcing and offers his hypothesis as to why people have a softer spot for small business than they do for big business. Whether or not you are a listener of Medved's outstanding radio show, "The 5 Big Lies About American Business" would be a great source if you are a conservative who wants to arm yourself against common liberal falsehoods about the capitalist system that has made America the most powerful, prosperous nation on earth.

As usual, Medved delivers wonderful anecdotes about the misleading claims against capitalism in America and abroad. He does it with clear, balanced logic, and even some insight into the mindset behind those who bemoan our position of authority in the world. It's hard to argue, that American entrepreneurial enterprise is a key element of our culture, and that spirit is something we would do well to acknowledge and foster, rather than stifle. We should be proud of our accomplishment as a progressive nation. It's Medved's ability to debate and apply logic that makes this book strong, and it's his personability that makes this book so enjoyable.

The title probably doesn't appeal to a lot of casual readers but they're missing an eye opening book about why the death of capitalism has been greatly exaggerated...and rightly so.

These days we often hear (mostly from the government) how evil business is and how government has the solutions. Mr. Medved does a good job of discounting both of these statements. His arguments are well thought out and he gives great examples. I would definitely recommend this to anyone who's interested in business or politics.

In this book Michael Medved constructs a series of straw men and then proceeds to knock them down. Fans of his politics and popular culture radio show will recognize the analysis he uses in the first part of the book, where he takes a few instances of negative portrayal of business in motion pictures and concludes that this attitude is pervasive throughout American society. With so much media being advertising driven it's hard to believe that anyone would seriously consider this a possibility. If fact Mr. Medved goes on to state that the negative portrayal of business by Hollywood is because this is a true portrayal of business in Hollywood. Mr. Medved seems confused about whether or not business should be portrayed negatively.

The most interesting of his 5 lies, and the longest section of the book, is the comparison of small businesses to large businesses. As in most of the rest of his book Mr. Medved defends his points of view with opinion pieces. What statistics he does quote are from organizations similar to the Heritage Foundation. With unemployment high at this time the argument that large businesses are better because they create more jobs than small businesses is counter-intuitive. It could just as easily be argued from the facts presented that more competition is needed and because large firms have so much sway in the economy that a reliance on smaller firms is necessary for our economy to reach full employment. An idle workforce is a waste and drain on resources. In a previous section of the book Mr. Medved had harsh words for Lou Dobbs and his book War on the Middle Class: How the Government, Big Business, and Special Interest Groups Are Waging War on the American Dream and How to Fight Back, yet his analysis of small business as a minor force in the economy seems to more than support Mr. Dobb's position.

Mr. Medved picks several instances of government programs that have failed to live up to expectations. Mr. Medved really does not like Seattle's public transit. There are many more failures in the business world than with government, which Mr. Medved detailed in his small business discussion, and there are government successes, which are not mentioned. Much of the blame that gets attributed to government actually belongs to businesses who are unable or unwilling to fulfill the contracts they enter into with government.

The book ends with a personal story of how Mr. Medved ignored the rules and conventions and started a business providing course notes for college students. He attended a class and took notes to earn money during the summer but neither enrolled in the class or got pre-approval from the professor to audit the class. Mr. Medved claims an altruistic motive of helping the learning process, but wouldn't the learning process be better helped by spending his money and enrolling in the class, helping to ensure that it would succeed and continue to be offered? Maybe the negative attitude that people have for business, if it does exist, is due to businessmen who act like Mr. Medved did and do not think it is necessary to follow the rules.

completely avoids the issue. the issues the public has with american business are social ones. the book avoids a social perspective. the issue at hand is that businesses are for and of profit first and foremost. any benefit to the public comes second to profit.

in theory a free market economy should benefit everyone, GIVEN a level playing field. however, big business looks to deregulate and by doing so, give themselves unfair advantages. this issue is a whole book in itself.

another problem is how resources and wealth is distributed in america. productivity has increased by 80% since the seventies and wages have stagnated and benefits are out the window. if there are benefits to the system of a "free market" then those benefits should be enforced and not just "trusted" to happen.

Thanks to Mr. Medved for providing essential and interesting information on "Big Buissness". The book dispells the lies and common misconceptions of American buiness. Useful for arming yourself against the political banter of the left side. Very much worth the time to read!

This is a great book; as evidenced by some of these "reviews", we can never have too many people disproving liberal myths.