Customer Reviews

How to Ruin the United States of America

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4 star:		(1)
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2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

In "How to Ruin the United States" I expected to see the standard conservative line, given Stein's conservative background. Instead, I was pleased to instead find thoughtful comments, documented with a few facts, as appropriate.

I especially liked his sections on "Voodoo Economics" and immigration. Stein believes our government is engaged in economic malpractice by running large deficits during times of prosperity, pushing the Kool-Aid of supply-side economics that says cutting taxes gives us something for nothing, and persecuting the oil industry - vital to our survival.

Stein reports that the discounted present value of unfunded liabilities from Medicare and Social Security total $88.2 trillion as of 2007 - about $290,000 per citizen, and 6X our annual GDP. He also asserts that the 2006 drug benefit costs are even larger, though I'm not certain I'm on board with that conclusion.

Milton Friedman attributed about 60% of the increase in health care costs to U.S. involvement in Medicare and Medicaid; the proportion of government spending on health care has risen from 1/8 in 1919 to about one-half in 1997.

Turning to our ballooning federal deficits, Stein attributes them largely to Arthur Laffer's theory - introduced without benefit of validity during Reagan's terms. Supposedly, people would work harder if they were taxed less, resulting in an overall increase in collected taxes. Reality, however, is that the number of hours worked/week has barely moved since Bush's tax cuts, and are considerably less than 1959 when the top bracket was nearly 80%. Further, overall labor-forced participation has hardly changed since Bush's cuts.

Almost $1 trillion in personal income taxes was collected in 2000, prior to the cuts; this dropped to $794 billion in 2003, and only returned to $1 trillion in 2006. Meanwhile, our national debt had gone up over $2 trillion. (Stein does concede that corporate profits did increase - on the other hand, what else could they do when tax expenses were decreased?)

Stein is also concerned about increasing income inequality, seeing it as a moral issue. As for those accusing oil companies of price-fixing, Stein easily dismisses their conspiracy theories with long-term data showing inflation-adjusted oil prices (until recently) lower than decades prior.

Stein also considered immigration (especially illegal) to be an important topic. He traces that problem's start to legislation passed by Sen. Kennedy in 1965, along with subsequent amnesty etc. programs. Anchor babies, relatives, sham marriages, etc. acerbate the problem, while their numbers and failure to assimilate clearly undermines American culture.

Interesting, and refreshing!

A deep insight into the state of our country, what it was built on, and how far we've strayed from the ideals of our founders. The authors have addressed serious problems that our country is facing in a truly comical, yet straightforward fashion. A definite must-read for everybody before casting your presidential vote.

This book should be required reading for Americans who do not think ours is a great country. Those who do not believe that we are surrounded by enemies should read this book. Those who criticize and mock our core values should examine the book.

Stein and DeMuth outline the basic values on which our country was built: a belief in God, a belief in ethical behavior, a belief in freedom, and a willingness to fight to defend our way of life. The authors point out how a liberal media and a liberal academe have helped create a moralless community of lazy complainers in our country. If you're the sort who snickers at phrases like "My country right or wrong" you would not enjoy this book.

The authors offer great insight about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the threats from Iran, North Korea, and Venezuela. They point out the ill effects of an open-borders immigration policy. They assert that a crisis looms because of the unfunded demands of Social Security and Medicare combined with a cut-taxes-but-spend-anyway government, all riding on a stupendous national debt.

It's a great little book.

I hope you take the time to read this terrific book. It won't take very long to read, but I hope you ponder its meaning for a long time to come. In a way it is one of those tests that reveals who you are by your responses to what it says. I found myself deeply in sympathy with what Ben Stein and Phil DeMuth say in these pages and I think that most people who truly love America for its history, traditions, and potential will love this book. Those who see only America's flaws and judge it a failed nation will be on the other side of things. I think it is helpful to know who stands where and why.

The book has six short chapters. Ben Stein's other "How to Ruin" books have many more chapters that range from a paragraph or two to a page or two, but these chapters are 20 to 30 pages each. The authors provide a mix of history, stories, and personal analysis of each topic.

The first chapter shows how banishing God from Public Life is against our long held traditions and how this modern innovation has turned the Founders' intentions on their head. It has not been a matter of progress, but a process of corruption. Our society has become not only coarser and crueler, it has taken on practices as normal that have been seen by humanity as abominations for thousands of years.

The second chapter shows how the mis-education of our youth serves one political agenda and it is not the one that reveres our founding and the original intent of our Declaration and Constitution. When the authors show you the way certain views have turned every subject into a nail for its monomaniacal hammer I hope you get energized to get involved and help America reject the rot of the past several decades.

Chapter three shows us the debasement of American culture. Stein and DeMuth show surveys that demonstrate the majority of us understand that things have gotten worse. They also compare literature and movies from early in the 20th Century to recent decades. The review of television, music, and our obsession with celebrity for celebrity's sake is truly disheartening.

Their discussion of the weakening of our military in chapter four is more important that you might at first realize. Despite the costliness of the War on Terror, we are still not spending enough to replace the equipment being used or enough of our GDP to keep our military as strong as we need it to be to face the looming threats. We need more men and women in the military who need to be paid and cared for better. We need more ships, planes, tanks, and other equipment. And we all need to show more public gratitude to the men and women of our armed forces regardless of how you feel about the tasks they do on our behalf.

Chapter five discusses the immigration problem in a very helpful and informative way. Stein and DeMuth show how the current waves of legal and illegal immigration began in 1965 when the quotas put in place in 1924 were repealed. They assign the blame to Ted Kennedy and that is fine with me, but the courts have also helped create this mess. While it is wrong to blame those coming here to feed their families, we don't need to countenance their lawbreaking nor should those who employ them get off free. These employers are not paying the full freight of their employees because they externalize the costs on us, the taxpayers. We need better policies and we need to seriously enforce our laws. If we need immigrants, we should have them but in a legal and orderly way. We shouldn't let a political agenda to change our society or a desire to create more constituents undermine respect for our laws and our economy.

The last chapter discusses VooDoo Economics. I am in sympathy with what Stein and DeMuth are saying here even if I have a couple of qualms with the way they say it. The problem is America is rapidly spending its great wealth on things that do not create wealth. We are incurring debt to buy baubles from China and oil from people who hate us. I agree with the authors that we must be willing to pay taxes for the things we want the government to do. However, I am less confident than they about the efficacy of raising taxes to curb our deficit spending. Neither party has shown a speck of financial maturity or controlled pork responsibly. Every dollar you give them is simply used to spend more.

Think back to George H. W. Bush and his broken pledge of no new taxes. He raised taxes because he was strongly pressured to "be a statesman" and end deficit spending. The idea was that the tax increase would bring the budget in line with the revenues brought in. However, the Congress piled on something like $1.60 or $1.80 of new spending for every dollar of new taxes. That means that every dollar of the new taxes went to new spending not to deficit reduction. Then Bill Clinton and the New Democrats trashed Bush for breaking the pledge the Democrats (among others) urged him to break, blamed him for budget deficits and more. So, I am very concerned that if we follow Stein and DeMuth in adding new taxes, no matter how well intended, it will just give the Congress a green light to spend more.

Yes, we haven't been able to end any government programs and it is terribly sad that we lack the sense and maturity to limit government and make hard choices, but giving a drunk one last round because he promises that it will be the last drink before he goes on the wagon has a long history of failure. So does giving Congress more billions in the name of fiscal responsibility.

Stein and DeMuth do have a great point about the corrosive effects of social economic inequality. However, I will point out that the great fortunes of Carnegie, Rockefeller and others were not used to indulge in lavish and selfish lifestyles. While they lived very well (and more), they used their great wealth to build libraries and universities, to promote medical research, museums, and much more. Look at the buildings of your state's major universities and see how many of the great ones were built by the fortunes of a former time. In my view, the problem is much less about the fortunes being created than it is about the corrupt social values Stein and DeMuth describe in previous chapters.

I always laugh when I hear people like Warren Buffett complain that they should be taxed more. Nothing is stopping them from giving all their wealth to the government. They are free to tax themselves at any higher marginal rate they choose. If we all leave it to the government to take care of the poor and do our level best to minimize the taxes we pay to do that good, doesn't that invert the idea of charity and giving all you can to help your neighbor? The wealthy know that talk is cheap and mouthing niceties is good PR. Do not mistake wealthy businessmen (and women) for free market capitalists. Many of them are for big government because they want the government to dole out favors to them, protect them from competition, and tax the middle class heavily to pay for social programs and subsidies. I know that Buffett and Gates are giving billions to trusts and charities and good for them. But that does not mean their social prescriptions and comments on taxation are not self serving

This is a terrific book and deserves a large audience.

You might want to look at these books by Stein and DeMuth:

Can America Survive? The Rage of the Left, the Truth, and What to Do About It

The Real Stars: In Today's America, Who Are the True Heroes?

How to Ruin Your Life

Reviewed by Craig Matteson, Ann Arbor, MI

The authors take an honest and sometimes humorous, no punches pulled, look at many of the major issues and problems facing the United States of America. A great read! I didn't want to put this one down. If we can only encourage Americans and our leaders to use the common sense needed to strengthen our country and unite us once again. Otherwise, some of the scary scenarios in this book could soon be our reality and then, if it isn't already, it will be too late.

This book seems unable to finish an argument at any point. For example it spends 5 pages convincing us how many liberals there are in higher education, but forgets to explain why that's a bad thing. For those of us that don't hate liberals (I'm non politcal, not left wing), it's a lot of talking with no point. The only mild attempt it makes at proving it's a bad thing is that if one viewpoint is very common, it will lead to groupthink. Besides the preposterousness of this unfounded conclusion, I'm quite certain that the authors would have no such complaints if the pervasive majority were christian rather than liberal.

Examples of this inability to finish an argument are prevalent, including the primary subject for every chapter. To provide just one more such example, the first chapter is about how we can ruin america by getting rid of God, then goes on to explain at length how the founding fathers and early America were all christian. It then talks about how we've removed God from schools and such. It never explains why getting rid of God is a bad thing, or even if we assume it's morally bad, how it will ruin America. Sure, if you're a Christian you might be bitter enough about the facts he illuminates to miss the fact that he never really gets to the point.

Other major issues with the book are biased statistics (do some of your own research and compare it to what the book says), as well as constantly mistaking correlation for causality. For example, people that watch more tv expect more government handouts. That doesn't mean watching tv CAUSES that mentality, more likely is that an inherently lazy person will watch more tv and expect more handouts. Eliminating tv does not make a person less lazy.

In conclusion, the whole book reads as a propaganda manifesto to make people that agree with the authors cheer and people that don't bewildered.

Ben Stein is intelligent. Ben Stein is insightful. Ben Stein is sincerely concerned about the America he loves. Ben Stein can be funny. Ben Stein certainly has a dead-pan delivery. Okay, now you know my opinion of "How to Ruin the United States of America". You want I should go on?

Better maybe you should take a pocket edition of the Constitution and read it over a nice lochs and bagel.

The authors discuss six areas in which the policies and attitudes of the last few decades have served to weaken the United States. The book is well researched and easy to read. It shouldn't be viewed as an in-depth discussion of the topics, but rather as a starting point for your further consideration of the issues. It's thought provoking, and more than a little concerning for those who love this country.

Pros
-A very easy to read book
-You get a mix of history, with a few problems that are present.
-Book has a few good proposals.

Cons:
-Unfortunately too often he sounds like the old man rambling about the end of America because media outlets are free to air whatever they want. We could just go back to early 20th century and let government tell us what news we receive and allow "instant shutdowns" of those who didn't comply. This is all because TV stations air too much Lindsay Lohan. I don't watch this kind of news, but its called capitalism, lay off.
-Provides too many surface facts, doesn't go deep enough into issues. The book provides polls with too many outliers. A poll like that claims more TV watching leads to fewer morals? This is one of the many "wacky" polls. Hey Ben/Phil do you think age/income/location has anything to do with hours spent watching TV? And I bet no one lied on those polls, especially on a poll about morality. No! No one would lie on those polls.

--Devotes a portion of a chapter to a "history quiz", never provides the answers.

--Dismisses Supply-side economics and Keynesian Economics. Thinks high taxes are the answer, what about low to no spending? My guess (which you have to do because their answers to the problems are not usually given) is they believe in a mix, more on the Keynesian side. Saying the rich should pay higher taxes. You can only raise their taxes so much, and the top 1% income earners pays 40% of our spending.

--Calls American airheads, and then follows that with "why do liberals beat down America?" Maybe the high tax society which you propose would make people even dumber. (People are poor, able to afford less education/books)

--The book doesn't clearly state who wrote which chapter, which leads you to believe they completely agree on every subject. (I though Ben Stein would have had better ideas.)

Summary: Decent book that dismisses too many ideas without providing a reasonable alternative. It may provide problems, but little to no clear answers. Going in I thought Mr. Stein followed beliefs closer to supply-side economics, guess I was wrong.
I saw way too many instances of him complaining that people complain about America, and then a few pages later he would start his complaining.
I read this book very quickly, so maybe I misinterpreted some things although I don't believe I have.
Politically, I am a conservative (maybe libertarian), and this book unfortunately is more of the right-wing wanting to control people's lives. In this book Stein/Demuth want to pick and choose what should be controlled, which is always faulty logic.

Feel free to comment/clear up any problems with my review.

It's a shame when it takes a comedian to speak with the voice of reason. In a rather small book, Ben Stein lays out what is wrong with America and the likely results. That's spelled ruin. Stein is actually much more than a comedian and his work shows deep thought. A small book deserves a concise review. Buy it!