Customer Reviews

Politics In Compassion: The Future Of American Politics

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Politics In Compassion: The Future of American Politics is a political book about the present need for political change and why, in the author's view, we need government involvement to solve most of society's ills. This book emphasizes the need for political compassion and it takes the stand that government intervention is critical to ending discrimination, taking care of the elderly, and solving many of America's social problems.

This book basically presents an argument in favor of relying on government as the most practical means to an important end: The reduction of poverty and the prevention of problems involving troubled youth, needy elderly, uninsured citizens with no access to health care, etc. This book takes the stand that government needs to act as the catalyst for change by passing legislation that addresses extreme poverty, guarantees health care for all, etc., thereby raising disadvantaged individuals out of their economic slump and improving their lives in the future.

This book is certainly passionate about the subject of compassion and it attempts to offer persuasive arguments in favor of its premise. The author is very respectful of the reader when he talks about the need for more government intervention in the economic lives of Americans, and I respect him back for his polite writing style. But I can't say I agree with much of what he says. His proposals for improving the quality of life through government intervention have not fared well in very many countries and it has been shown over and over again that a free enterprise system is the best way to accumulate wealth. But the main problems I have with this book are not necessarily my disagreements in principle. My issues are the books brief length and limited time spent trying to present and build a case, along with the book's somewhat sloppy presentation. My first issue is the one that will matter most to those who read the book. This book is, after all, a work of political persuasion at its core, but the chapters are too brief for the author to have a chance to develop his arguments. The book is too brief to examine different problems thoroughly and it doesn't present a well- reasoned argument that would convince the reader to accept the author's point of view.

Like I said before, I like that the author wrote this book in a respectful, non- confrontational way, but the lack of sufficient editing annoyed me all the way through. For one example, readers will quickly notice that one chapter, chapter 3, doesn't have a title while the others do have a title. For another example, simply turn to many of the book's pages and you will see strikethroughs (incorrect words that need to be omitted and show a line through the middle of the word, but were never deleted), run- on sentences, bad grammar, misspellings, etc. I am a little surprised that this book went to press in this condition. The author and the publisher should have noticed these mistakes and corrected them before the book was ever sent to the print.

Compassion is certainly a great idea in concept and few among us would argue that more compassion toward fellow humans isn't something in which we should strive to achieve. But this book is a weak effort that has a few good discussion points, but is far too brief and too sloppy in its presentation to recommend. I don't agree with the book's core premise, but the main problem I have with this book isn't its stance; it's the fact that it isn't fully developed and thus does not convince me to consider the author's point of view. This, along with the littering of the book with bad grammar and other editing mistakes, makes this a book to avoid.

While the author certainly expresses some good ideas in this book, the problems are too complex and his analysis is short and necessarily simplistic. His primary theme is that true compassion should be an essential component of major political decisions affecting the social structure. My wife works as a counselor of drug abusing women and she often tells me about the problems they have in trying to rebuild their lives. All of them have children and when they want to work their low level of skills keeps their wage opportunities down to the point that the cost of childcare is too high to allow them to work. Therefore, their only real option is to continue on welfare.
Schauer's treatment of this problem is right on, at least to the extent that it is examined. Chapter 5, "Impact of Welfare Reform Upon Nonprofit People" demonstrates his knowledge of the reality of welfare reform, however thirteen pages is nowhere near enough to explore the subject in any depth. "White Privilege and Racism in America", the topic of chapter 6, is another example of a topic of critical importance, but once again the limitations of fifteen pages prevents any real examination of this extremely complex topic.
I applaud Schauer for taking the position that political action is not something that can be done "by-the-numbers", costs are important but often the real costs are either hidden or ignored to avoid the inconvenience of admitting them. True compassion is a biblical virtue, it was arguably the primary theme of Jesus as he walked and preached. I agree with Schauer that more of it is needed in the political arena.

I read Politics in Compassion by Jack Schauer. I think this is the perfect book for someone who is a busy, real life person, working hard in the world and has little time for reading in depth, complicated books on politics and government. It gave me much food for thought on many levels. It opened up ideas and thoughts about how my country and government runs, how it failed and how it may continue in the future. Since I have not had a chance in my life to delve deeply into the subject of government and politics, I have felt the urge to be more informed. This book gave me insights I had not previously been aware of. I am a firm believer in pulling oneself up by the bootstraps, and yet I am also a spiritual person, who believes that compassion in this world is high on the list of virtues a country and world must have in order to climb to greater levels of humanity and civility. This book made me more aware of the complexities of dealing with the many political, governmental, and socio-economic issues, and that somehow we must tie that in with compassion. This we all must understand in order to move into a healthier future for all.
I like the idea in the book that addresses the idea of responsibility of us all. Both rich and poor must take responsibility for themselves in order to really make things work. These days, we need to hear this more than ever, as the rich have abused the system and have brought the world almost to its knees financially, and the poor are encouraged and even forced to stay in a system that perpetuates their poverty and their inability to think for themselves. I would recommend this book. It is informative, and one can grasp the concepts quickly without getting bogged down in detail.
Clearly Mr. Schauer has studied these things over time, and feels his sense of responsibility to get this information out to those who are not so informed. I would give this book a 4 out of 5.

Jack Schauer argues the case for Socialism based on the oldest argument of all..compassion.He has obviously given much thought to this over many years and is thoroughly convinced,and makes his case with passion.He points out why he thinks that so many people have such a hard time making a success of their lives and why it is beyond their control,because they are victims of racism,enviroment,greed,the system,etc.and contends that it can corrected only by the compassion of politics and government.
So,why don't I give this book 5*? The reason is,I don't happen to agree with him.It is not surprising that that he thinks this way coming from the academic world.I have an awful lot of friends and acquaintences who work in education and public service;and almost without exception, they are passionate liberals and socialists in their views,and simply abhor any concept suggestive of conservativeism.It is little wonder, since they live in a world where everything is provided for them by the government.These people have the best of benefits,work enviroment,job security,health and retirement benefits,working hours and vacations,union protection,and certainly have little or no accountability to the people who provide them with this compfortable and secure lifestyle. As compassionate people, they believe everyone should have the same. This would mean the government would look after everyone and everyone would work for or be taken care of by the government. This is the foundation of all liberalism and socialism.It has been tried in many countries and societies with mediocre success at best and dismal failure at its worse.One has only to look a the USSR,much of Europe and right beside the US, in Cuba. Of course, this long history of failure is attributed to everything but the fundamental concept of socialism.
There has been no country ,except for where free enterprise has been practiced,that has provided so much for the workers and producers.And in no case where socialism,which promises so much,has been adopted,has ever seen the people benefit so much for their efforts as compared to free enterprise.
The thing that has made free enterprise so successful is that its foundation is self reliance,initiative,self control of what one wants to do with their life and more importantly,what to do with what they have earned.
Free enterprise has shown that it has by far outstripped any other system,and even though it is not perfect,there has yet to be devised any other,even remotely as successful.
Canada has always tended to be more Socialistic than the US and for that reason has lagged behind in virtually every respect.
We have a National Health care system that was totally socialized by liberal and socialist governments since the 1960's.It consumes approximately half of all government revenues. Taxes are much higher in Canada,there are long waits for treatment,both doctors and nurses are unhappy,the patient has little to say because the system treats him as if he is "getting it free",its common for patients to spend days on a gurney in hospital hallways because of unavailanble beds or rooms.In Ontario,with a population of about 12 million,over 500,000 are unable to find a Family Doctor.And the worst thing about it is, that no matter how hard you work,no matter how much you produce,how much you pay in taxes ;you get the same treatment as someone who contributes little or nothing;whatever the reason. This is the same with anything the government takes over,they are far more inefficient and work for the losers and the victims and their votes;rather than the winners and self reliant and their votes; and that is the whole argument between those who believe in liberalism or socialism,big government and victimization and those who believe in conservativeism,smaller government and self reliance.
Hence,3* stars for presenting the argumenrs for socialism and big government ;but not 5*,because it doesn't cover why it doesn't work.

"Success depends on your backbone,not your wishbone."

Mr. Jack Schauer does a great job encapsulating the work of Grass-Roots organizational work in the Midwest and the national trend of participatory Democracy.

Community Activism and Community Organizing is needed now more than ever.

Good Work Mr. Schauer!