Customer Reviews

The End Of Equality: Second Edition

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Mickey Kaus' engaging and highly readable book sets itself a pretty big task: propose, in detail, a new approach to the pursuit of equality in America, an approach that eschews the apparently unproductive obsessions of left-wing egalitarians of recent times, and instead promotes reforms just as radical as those that have emerged from the neoconservative movement. Kaus wants us to be equal - not in material goods, where he believes the government should simply enforce minimum standards (and to that effect provide jobs to all willing to take them), but rather in social terms. Reducing monetary inequality in America might be impossible, Kaus says, given the direction that modern economies are taking. How can an egalitarian resond? By reducing the sphere in which money makes a difference. "Social equality" requires that people from all strata of society mix together in a strong and broad public sphere. Kaus presents a program that would take a lot of political will to enact in full - even if you agree with aspects of it, the whole may not agree with you. The great thing is, most of his proposals could function independently, and each would work on its own to produce Kaus' vision of equality. Highly recommended.

I love Kaus' blog. Insightful, witty, and thought provoking. He was one of the few who understood the enormous gains to be had by the working poor with the advent of Welfare Reform. I believe he was the only liberal voice who wholeheartedly embrace that legislation.

When he touches upon such themes as forcing the poor into the mainstream of society, The End Of Equality is an engaging book. However, when Kaus descends into the quicksand of Great Society thinking (Guaranteed Job, Universal Health Care) the The End Of Equality comes off more as an artifact of the 70's than any forward looking book.

Smartly written like his blog. However the book sinks under the weight of poorly thought out ideas.

I'm still half-way through but this is an intetersting book. If you want to see Mickey in person, you should head to his web cam disputes site: [bloggingheads.tv]

Kaus' book outlines some truths about capitalism that even die-hard conservatives would have trouble dismissing. The importance of money in American society is increasingly apparent yet we refuse to level the playing field. While Kaus' perceptions are astute, his remedies are utopic to the point of being a bit naive. A guarantee of jobs for all typically creates inefficiencies in the workforce as jobs are assigned not because they are needed but because they are required in order to fulfill a worker's right to work. All in all not a bad work for a creepy dude who makes mixed cd's and mails them out to any half-way attractive girl that he meets.

Want even more extreme policies from the radically egalitarian vermin than we've seen evolve within the US over the past century? Follow the ideas of this turkey and you'll get them! You can have freedom or you can have this kind of enforced utopian egalitiarianism--you can't have both. I'll choose freedom any time.