UNSUSTAINABLE is packed with information that is vital to every taxpaying American. It reveals shocking information that has long been hidden from the public. It exposes how governments at every level hide the pay and exorbitant pensions they provide to themselves and use accounting trickery to keep taxpayers from knowing of the enormous costs and long-term liabilities. MacDougald shows how the federal government keeps $106 trillion of debt hidden from taxpayers, and how state and local governments hide another $3 trillion. He exposes exactly how governments often trick taxpayers into agreeing to pay more and more taxes to "save schools" or "provide police protection" when the money really goes to more pay and bigger pensions. UNSUSTAINABLE details how public sector unions have become a "money pump," taking taxpayer dollars paid to public sector workers, then given as union dues, and then used for political contributions to politicians who will support the extraction of even more taxpayer dollars. The provocative and controversial book also documents and exposes the huge financial catastrophe that is about to befall Social Security, "baby boomers" and our younger workers and how it will threaten our economy for decades. UNSUSTAINABLE addresses the "jobs squeeze," detailing how the private sector lost 1.5 million jobs in the last decade even as government grew by 2 million. And it reveals how Congress passes laws that they know violate our Constitutional rights and gets away with it. It is a book that all Americans, no matter what their politics, must read.
Jim MacDougald is a person who has lived the American Dream. An "army brat", he was raised living on or near Army posts in an environment far-removed from entrepreneurism and business. With the strong encouragement of his mother (who worked in Civil Service), and his father, he entered the business world after college. He worked in the pension and group health insurance field before leaving to start his own company with his wife as his partner, working from their home. The company ultimately grew enough to go public, and employed more than 1500 people in 7 states when it was acquired by another public company in 1999.
Jim used his knowledge of pensions and health insurance to look into the practices of the public sector, and was shocked to find that none of the disclosure and reporting rules that are legally-mandated to all private sector companies, applies to the public sector. The massive research undertaken by 10 researchers was so far-reaching and shocking that MacDougald compiled it in his book, "Unsustainable". The book was provided to every Congressman, Senator, Governor, major talk-show host, and economics writer and has shaped the national dialogue on public sector pay and benefits disparity, underfunded public sector pensions, and abuses of taxpayer dollars. It achieved Amazon "best seller" status within weeks of its publication, and the term "unsustainable" has entered everyday usage by the press and political pundits.
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