No, They Can't: Why Government Fails-But Individuals Succeed [Hardcover]

John Stossel (Author)

Book Description

Release date: April 10, 2012

The government is not a neutral arbiter of truth. It never has been. It never will be. Doubt everything. John Stossel does. A self-described skeptic, he has dismantled society’s sacred cows with unerring common sense. Now he debunks the most sacred of them all: our intuition and belief that government can solve our problems. In No, They Can’t, the New York Times bestselling author and Fox News commentator insists that we discard that idea of the “perfect” government—left or right—and retrain our brain to look only at the facts, to rethink our lives as independent individuals—and fast.

With characteristic tenacity, John Stossel outlines and exposes the fallacies and facts of the most pressing issues of today’s social and political climate—and shows how our intuitions about them are, frankly, wrong:

• the unreliable marriage between big business, the media, and unions

• the myth of tax breaks and the ignorance of their advocates

• why “central planners” never create more jobs and how government never really will

• why free trade works—without government Interference

• federal regulations and the trouble they create for consumers

• the harm caused to the disabled by government protection of the disabled

• the problems (social and economic) generated by minimum-wage laws

• the destructive daydreams of “health insurance for everyone”

• bad food vs. good food and the government’s intrusive, unwelcome nanny sensibilities

• the dumbing down of public education and teachers’ unions

• how gun control actually increases crime

. . . and more myth-busting realities of why the American people must wrest our lives back from a government stranglehold.

Stossel also reveals how his unyielding desire to educate the public with the truth caused an irreparable rift with ABC (nobody wanted to hear the point-by- point facts of ObamaCare), and why he left his long-running stint for a new, uncensored forum with Fox. He lays out his ideas for education innovation as well and, finally, makes it perfectly clear why government action is the least effective and desirable fantasy to hang on to. As Stossel says, “It’s not about electing the right people. It’s about narrowing responsibilities.” No, They Can’t is an irrefutable first step toward that goal.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Excellent...No They Can't  shed[s] light on how nonsensical government…is way beyond what our constitution allows.” --Sarah Palin

“As an introduction to a way of looking at the world, No, They Can't is superb.  In about 300 highly readable pages, Mr. Stossel whips through countless topics, explaining for each why libertarians think the government does more harm than good.” --The Washington Times

"I love No They Can't.  This book sends a message that people need to read.”--Senator Mike Lee

"One of the nation's most recognized advocates of free-markets and individualism, Stossel argues that we have to become reality-based skeptics and embrace facts rather than feel-good rhetoric and politically popular policies that simply don't work.”--David Harsanyi, Human Events

“Is there anything for a reader already on the capitalist side to learn from yet another one of these books? Yes there is.” --Future of Capitalism

About the Author

New York Times bestselling author John Stossel hosts his own one-hour weekly Fox Business Network show, Stossel, and a series of one-hour specials on Fox News. He also appears regularly Tuesdays on The O’Reilly Factor and on other Fox News shows.During three decades in journalism, Stossel has received numerous honors and awards. He is a nineteen-time Emmy winner, and a five-time honoree for excellence in consumer reporting by the National Press Club. His two previous books spent twenty weeks on the New York Times bestseller list.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 336 pages
• Publisher: Threshold Editions (April 10, 2012)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1451640943
• ISBN-13: 978-1451640946
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.1 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (181 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #38,002 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #89 in Books > Politics & Social Sciences > Politics & Government > Specific Topics > Commentary & Opinion

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

86 of 94 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Kudos! April 13, 2012

By Christine Krukowski

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

John Stossel has a gift for presenting issues in a clear, forthright manner that is top rate. He uses logic, and thinks things through, and he explains his opinion in ways that appeal to the head as well as the heart. I can't say that I agree with him on every issue, but it's vitally refreshing to read a book of political stances that uses intelligent thinking. The only negative criticism that I can make is that in several chapters he reiterates examples from his previous book that I read (and loved), 'Myths, Lies, and Downright Stupidity' rather than offering new ones. I would give this new book a 4.5 on that basis, but since that's not possible, I'm rounding it up to a 5. On its own, it definitely rates such.

123 of 143 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Except for the Defense Chapter April 10, 2012

By Ira E. Stoll VINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover

Mr. Stossel's book turns out to be quite well done; I learned from it even though I've read lots of other pro-capitalist and pro-free market books. Two of the best pieces of content are charts. One shows the decline in workplace fatalities per 100,000 workers between 1933 and 2005. The chart shows that "before regulation, deaths dropped just as fast." Or, as Mr. Stossel puts it, the establishment of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration "made no difference" in workplace fatalities.

The second chart, from the Cato Institute, shows the "inflation-adjusted cost of a complete K-12 education, and percent change in achievement of 17-year-olds, since 1970." Costs have gone way up, while reading and math scores, as measured by the National Assessment of Educational Progress, have been essentially flat.

Another eye-opener in the book's chapter on education is about how what Mr. Stossel calls government schools "are now more racially segregated than private schools." He writes, "University of Arkansas education professor Jay Greene examined a national sample of school classrooms and found that public schools were significantly more likely to be almost entirely white or entirely minority. In another study, he looked at who sat with whom in school lunchrooms. At private schools, students of different races were more likely to sit together."

I also appreciated the dose of skepticism from Mr. Stossel about his colleagues in the television news industry: "Emmys are silly awards that the liberal media give to people who confirm their anticapitalist attitudes. I won nineteen Emmys before I moved to Fox. I don't win them anymore."

Mr. Stossel is a libertarian, not a conservative, so there's a chapter on why drugs should be legal and a chapter on why America's defense budget should be downsized. The drug legalization chapter is, at least, mostly well argued.

The chapter on defense is a disappointment, especially in contrast to the high quality of the rest of the book. "The 9/11 attacks were largely a failure of government," Mr. Stossel writes. "Part of the failure was America's interventionist foreign policy, which needlessly made enemies." He clarifies: "I do not argue here that our military actions abroad are the reason we were attacked on 9/11. We were attacked by religious fanatics. But our military presence in so many countries wins the fanatics support."

America's foreign policy may make some enemies, but it also makes some friends, a fact that Mr. Stossel fails to acknowledge, so far as I can tell. And "religious fanatics" is a weirdly imprecise phrase to use to describe the terrorists, who weren't, after all, fanatically religious Christians or Jews, but rather adherents of militant Islamism. These radical Islamists also have attacked in Bali, Indonesia, and in Madrid, Spain. Neither Indonesia or Spain have America's level of overseas bases. And the militant Islamists attacked a Jewish community center in Argentina and a Jewish school in France. How is America's interventionist foreign policy to blame for that?

Mr. Stossel declares "no one in authority has proposed 'massive defense cuts.' What Romney calls 'massive cuts' are reductions in planned spending increases." That's inaccurate. President Obama's defense secretary, Leon Panetta, a veteran of the Clinton administration, describes the cuts as "devastating" and writes that the result would be "the smallest ground force since 1940, the smallest number of ships since 1915, and the smallest Air Force in its history." President Obama's own budget, available for download from the White House Web site, projects not spending increases for defense but cuts -- to $572 billion in 2015 from $716 billion in 2012. That is a $144 billion cut, or about 20%, in numbers that do not take into account the erosion of inflation.

At one point in the book, Mr. Stossel writes, "I don't presume to know the 'right' amount to spend on defense." Later in the book, he sheds his lack of presumption and writes, "I propose cutting defense spending to $243 billion."

Another part of Mr. Stossel's argument for defense cuts is that "our current spending, adjusted for inflation, is greater than it was during the Cold War." While this is true in some technical sense, the American economy and the rest of the government have grown even more rapidly than the defense budget has, so using this argument to target single out defense spending for reduction is problematic. A visit back to the historical tables of President Obama's own budget, available for download from the White House Web site, confirms that in 1960, national defense spending was 52.2% of federal outlays and 9.4% of GDP; in 2012 it is 18.9% of federal outlays and 4.6% of GDP. By those two measures, we're spending less than half as much on defense now as we were during the Cold War.

Mr. Stossel belittles the threat of Iran with nuclear weapons on the grounds that Iran is "an ocean and a continent away." But that's little reassurance when Iran could put missiles in Venezuela or a place a bomb in a suitcase or a plane bound for an American city.

I've dwelled on the failings of the single chapter devoted to defense policy, but don't let that deter you from buying or reading the book. It's an accessible and clearly written defense of free markets and economic freedom that comes at a time when we sure can use it. In fact, one reason I'm glad our defense budget is as large as it is is that it keeps America and lots of other places around the world free so that people like Mr. Stossel can continue to criticize the government and defend individual liberty. There aren't many out there who do it better.

62 of 73 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Yes, that's right April 10, 2012

By D. W. MacKenzie

Format:Audio CD

Anyone who is acquainted with John Stossel's past work will find "No They Can't" familiar. Government intervention does not appear to make workplaces, homes, streets, or the world safer. Government intervention has not made schools, food, health care, or the whole economy work better. Government intervention has not made businesses more honest or life "fair". Government policies often backfire and have unintended consequences. Public officials do not know how to "plan a society", no one can- the world is too complex. Government programs come to us at exceedingly high costs. The costs of government programs are heading towards unbearable "insane" levels. Privatization and competition work in subtle ways that benefit everyone (unequally). Those who persist in advocating a large and active government do so through demagoguery, fear mongering, misinformation...

The facts in this book are generally accurate. Of course, not every argument in this book is strictly factual; there are some value-laden elements. And generally speaking Stossel values individual liberty. Stossel is highly consistent in his defense of individualism/Libertarianism, and this puts him at odds with Conservatives and in sympathy with Welfare State Liberals (on wars-national defense). As such, most potential readers will find something to disagree with here, but this should makes this book a more interesting read. So this book should benefit most anyone interested in economics or public policy. The cost (in terms of money and reading time) is also reasonable.