Size Matters: How Big Government Puts the Squeeze on America's Families, Finances, and Freedom [Hardcover]

Joel J. Miller (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 3, 2006

Your right to pursue happiness has been revoked by Big Government.

Thousands of pages of regulations, millions of employees, and trillions of tax dollars . . . Big Government is bigger than ever, and as this bloated behemoth continues to fatten up and stretch out, it squeezes America's entrepreneurs, workers, and families - cutting our choices, limiting our opportunities, and squelching our right to pursue happiness.

Every year, taxes increase, regulations pile higher, the cost of living goes up - and our quality of life suffers. So with everyone obsessing about the obesity problem in America, isn't it time we looked at the fat, flabby, overstretched, and overbloated behemoth that is American government?

Size Matters shows through facts, figures, and head-spinning stories that as government increases in quantity, we all suffer a loss in life quality. Miller reveals the damning details of Big Government's impact on the lives of ordinary Americans. How it . . .

• reduces family income
• drives up the cost of housing, healthcare, and most every other consumer product or service
• hurts employment
• misdirects entrepreneurial efforts
• stifles vital marketplace creativity and innovation

Bristling with drama and data, Size Matters reveals the real daily drawbacks of Big Government. It comes down to this . . .

Big Government = Huge Problem. Size really does matter.

"Miller explains how government overregulation and porkbarrelling are costing Americans money and freedom while politicians and special interests line their pockets. This book should be a political call to arms."
-Glenn Reynolds, Instapundit.com; author of An Army of Davids

"Great sport! Imagine Thomas Frank if he actually told the truth. Accessible, entertaining, informative, and relevant in the best sense of the word. Read this book and you'll never lose an argument to a liberal again."
-Jack Cashill, author of Hoodwinked and Sucker Punch

"Miller will make you excited about the potential of America-and spitting mad that Big Government keeps tripping us up."
-Star Parker, author of Uncle Sam's Plantation

"Who knew that reading about rapacious government growth could be so delectable?"
-Nick Gillespie, editor-in-chief, Reason

Product Details

• Hardcover: 240 pages
• Publisher: Thomas Nelson (January 3, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1595550372
• ISBN-13: 978-1595550378
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6.1 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,805,202 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Joel J. Miller is the author of Bad Trip, Size Matters, and The Revolutionary Paul Revere. His writing has been featured in The American Spectator, Reason, and elsewhere. He lives in Nashville, Tennessee, with his wife and two children.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Clear and on target, December 28, 2005

By 

Jamey W. Bennett "wittenberghall.com" (Franklin, TN USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Size Matters: How Big Government Puts the Squeeze on America's Families, Finances, and Freedom (Hardcover)

Joel Miller has done it again! A razormouthy, easy to read - yet not dumbed down - treatise against the ever-increasing size of government. Joel makes each chapter enjoyable by offering interesting examples and anecdotes to make each point. A real page-turner, this is the best book on government available today.

13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Essential Reading!, March 30, 2006

By 

Ryan Silberstein - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Size Matters: How Big Government Puts the Squeeze on America's Families, Finances, and Freedom (Hardcover)

I want to buy 535 more copies of this book. One for every member of Congress. Rep. Feeney and Sen. Coburn can send their copies back signed if they wish. Santorum and every Democrat need to read and submit to me a 5-page book report, self-written, on their reaction to how they are slowly poisoning this country. If only I had $8,362.05. Joel Miller's "Size Matters" is essential reading for taxpayers.

First, for a book called "Size Matters," it is a small volume. However, within its 200+ pages, it manages to go beyond the traditional arguments against Big Government, and explain how exactly how it affects the average American everyday. He roots it all to the Pursuit of Happiness, the most oft-neglected segment of Jefferson's "Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness." While the Happiness was written off as 'property' in my high school history classes, but Miller looks at it as a specific freedom. If your pursuit of happiness is infringed upon by the government, via regulation, taxes, and red-tape, what can we do? We can choose to fight, or we can simply accept it. Acceptance seems to be the current mentality.

Miller, however, does not prescribe an easy solution. Since markets push back, and people are inclined to pursue happiness whether the government infringes upon it or not, not to mention the power lobbies in Washington, immediate, quick reform is unlikely. The best way to fight back, then, I imagine, is through extra-government sources. Private retirement plans. Wal-Mart. VOIP (not as regulated as regular phone service). Abandon the need for bureaucracy.

Highly recommended.

16 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A great read, December 29, 2005

By 

Patrick Hynes "H-Bomb" (New Hampshire) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Size Matters: How Big Government Puts the Squeeze on America's Families, Finances, and Freedom (Hardcover)

Joel Miller puts in plain, fun language what many of us have believed for a long, long time but have been unable to articulate ourselves: There is an inverse relationship between the size and scope of government and our God-given right to the pursuit of happiness.