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54 of 57 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Wake Up Call For America, September 10, 2009
This review is from: National Suicide: How Washington Is Destroying the American Dream from A to Z (Mass Market Paperback)
A must read for all concerned about the future of America. This shocking warning illustrates a government on a mad spending orgy serving the interests of careerist politicians and their clients at the expense of our nation.Gross illustrates this jeremiad with a barrage of facts to back up his opinions. For example,there are 1399 federal funded programs for rural areas spread across 20 different federal agencies,none of which are coordinated to avoid duplication.
National Suicide is a basic source of information for anyone looking to challenge the destructive path that our self-serving political class is following.
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40 of 46 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Stop this train, I want to get off, November 1, 2009
This review is from: National Suicide: How Washington Is Destroying the American Dream from A to Z (Mass Market Paperback)
"National Suicide" begins with a 50-page essay in the vein that this country has been on the road to ruin since the presidency of Harry Truman, follows with 44 essays on various specific problems, and ends with a note to a current president on "how to better govern America."
It seems that we need to reorganize the government from top to bottom, reduce federal expenditures by about one-third, cut taxes, eliminate the alternative minimum tax, get over the nonsense about taxing carbon emissions, recruit better teachers for U.S. schools, and reverse the influx of illegal immigrants, among other things. "There is no other course if we are to save America from national suicide."
As an inventory of national problems, this book represents a good effort. Many of the points may be familiar, but most readers will learn some things. In my own case, for example, I had never realized and/or reflected on (a) how the federal government came to own so much of the land in Western states, (b) the possible benefits of requiring future teachers to study anything but "education" in college, (c) how Connecticut cut local government overhead by abolishing all counties in the state, and (d) the downside of having so many states use caucuses (often with very limited participation) in their presidential primaries.
But I disagree with some of the author's suggestions, such as (1) imposing a retaliatory tax on Chinese imports that could spark a global trade war (it would make far more sense to help U.S. manufacturers by cutting the corporate tax rate and eliminating needless regulations), (2) having the federal government take over the U.S. school system, and (3) replacing the welfare programs he decries with cash grants on the assumption that this is how to eliminate poverty.
Additionally, the game plan for reform is superficial. No president could be expected to take the author's suggestions and run with them; they simply do not represent an actionable agenda. Furthermore, there would have to be buy-in from many people besides the president to get anything constructive done.
Awareness is a start, however, and this book may contribute in that respect. As stated in the introduction, it is dedicated to helping "the voters learn the truth about Washington" so they will "be able to think intelligently about a government that is robbing its citizens of their treasure, their personal confidence, and their self-respect."
As I understand it, the author came out of retirement to write this book - basically an update of "The Government Racket 2000: All New Washington Waste from A to Z" - because he felt the situation was continuing to deteriorate. Good for him!
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20 of 22 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A Very Good, but not "Inclusive" Critique of the US Govt, October 1, 2009
This review is from: National Suicide: How Washington Is Destroying the American Dream from A to Z (Mass Market Paperback)
I agree with the other reviews in that Martin Gross's book does a good job of touring us through many wastes and inefficiencies in our US Federal Government. I'd point out that education is, indeed, given short shrift, and that Gross has other books on the subject of education. My assumption, then, would be that he covers much of the missing memes in these other books.
We need to remember as we read this book, that it is an "A to Z" format book. Doubtlessly, Mr. Gross used a copious set of organized notes on government matters, gleaned from many years studying this area. I'd guess Mr. Gross then picked out the short areas for chapters that would fit gracefully and usefully into this A to Z format. I'm sure he worked to make the book applicable to our present time, but I also note as I read that he has included extensive info about excesses and inefficiencies that arose as far back as the 1950's and 1960s'. Of course this mess of a government was not made over night, so the info is quite appropriate. But again, I doubt Mr. Gross intends this to be the "encyclopedia" of this problem.
I especially like that Mr. Gross makes a set of suggestions at the end of the book. So often, and especially in broadcasting, journalism and even in the world of weblogs, we hear only the criticism of government and politicians, but not a soupcon of constructive suggestions for alternatives. Of course, often, the alternatives are difficult to implement given politics....
Once a coherent argument is made, that growing, and growing government DOES NOT solve our society's problems, we still need to solve the problem of HOW we are going to reduce the size and scope of government. What political efforts that is going to need MUST be discussed (hear this, Tea Party folk? ...buy and read this book...then reconvene!).
Those of us who would like our taxes actually USED FOR IMPORTANT WORK need to drive home that the politics of government reduction is NOT a politics of ignoring our poor, or our sick and our helpless citizens. Rather, it is the first step on the long road (I'd suggest traditional charity and religious charity in particular, are part of the answer) to actually helping those most in need.
I am also a bit sorry that Gross did not cover the wasteful arguments currently underway regarding "eliminating" the Federal Reserve System. My understanding is that a single currency, and the management of the gross quantity of the supply of money (it takes several forms) cannot exist without an issuing agency, and a managing agency...is that somehow not correct? Perhaps we simply have another rise of the "Gold Bug" phenomenon of years ago. Maybe this is more of a "digression" into the world of "conspiracy theories". I tend to think first of incompetence, and only will consider a conspiracy when I see small, cohesive, organized groups and high degrees of competence.
I would highly recommend this book to someone who wants to learn quickly about the 20th century's history of excessive government growth, and of the tales of hideous excesses and waste that currently exist in the vast US Government.
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