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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Last review is a grotesque distortion of McQuaig's argument,
By A Customer
This review is from: The Cult of Impotence (Hardcover)
The last review utterly distorts McQuaig's argument, which if anything, favours a dynamic relationship of balance and counter-balance between the public and private sector. McQuaig's argument is fundamentally based on a belief in democracy, and in the role of government to act as the people's representative, and in the people's interest. This view is perhaps misplaced, given that many or most Western governments in recent years have been co-opted and effectively act as agents for large corporations, which represent at best the interest of their shareholders. Since, despite myths to the contrary, a relatively small number of interests still hold the bulk of share equity, this co-opting of government has resulted in governments that superficially bear the features of democracies, but effectively represent an oligarchical form of governance. McQuaig's argument is that government does at all times have the tools necessary to re-invent itself, and legislate on behalf of the populace at large, and that the oft-bandied claim that government is helpless in the fact of "inevitable" trends such as globalization amount essentially to a self-serving abdication of responsibility. The problem with the review below, other than its intellectually dishonest misrepresentation of McQuaig's argument, is that it takes a stereotypically Manichean view of the universe. Any government regulation or, indeed, governance per se is inherently evil (or "communistic", which is much the same thing), and destroys wealth and prosperity; by the same token, absolutely unfettered capitalism is the Archangel of goodness, and the guarantor of prosperity for all. Tell that to the former employees, shareholders and pensionholders of Enron. From where they stand today, a little judicious, and uncorrupted governance would have saved their security, and kept a huge amount of wealth from being destroyed by uncontrolled rapacity. Tell that, also, to the millions of working poor in the U.S., with dead-end jobs, zero prospects, lousy inner city educational facilities and no health insurance. Boy, it sure is paradise! You know, the Scandinavian countries have, for several generations, maintained capitalistic systems (with no shortage of productive private enterprise), while ensuring a good quality of life for all their citizens: health care, education, day care, a sound social safety net, generosity to less developed countries, and microscopic crime rates. Maybe we North Americans should put aside our arrogance, show some willingness to actually investigate what others have achieved (without assuming that our way is inherently best, simply because it is ours), and learn what the models of these little countries have to offer us. Their governments are hardly impotent, yet I suspect that their high per capita incomes and fairer distributions of wealth will ultimately prove more stable than the boom-to-bust model we pursue with such blinkered certainty.
0 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Is it really?,
By A Customer
This review is from: The Cult of Impotence (Hardcover)
The prior review argues that McQuiag's arguments are based on a belief in democracy and the role of government to act as a representative of the people. But, if this is true, why is she writing the book? The Mulroney government that signed the free trade agreement was elected democratically, and the negotiation of a free trade agreement was an explicit part of the party's election platform. One can argue whether the agreement does promote free trade or merely sets out a series of rules governing the use of protectionist policies. Thus, the real foundation of McQuiag's argument relies on the majority of people being consistently conned by politicians who promise one thing and delivery something completely different. However, rather than address the problem of politicians' propensity to cater to special interests, whether they be corporate executives or labour unions, McQuiag focuses all her energies on attacking private enterprise, without once addressing the problem of rent-seeking and government. The answer to the problems McQuiag speaks about lies in reducing the power of governments to grant privileges to special interests at the expense of everybody else.
1 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Stop the broken record,
This review is from: The Cult of Impotence (Hardcover)
This books is no different from any other book written by McQuaig. This means that the private sector is always bad, and if only the right (read socialist) people were running the government we would have a utopia. Mcquaig would do some good if she thought through the implications of her own arguments, if she did she would realize that her main point is that wealth creation is bad and that a world where we were all equally living in poverty rather would be superior to one in which wealth inequality exists.
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