Broke: The Plan to Restore Our Trust, Truth and Treasure Reviews
This summer Laurence Kotlikoff (an economist at Boston U) published an estimate of the total debts and obligations of the US government: 202 trillion dollars- we ARE broke. The main sources of this gargantuan debt are the major Federal entitlement programs: Social Security and Medicare. The scary facts of Federal financial mismanagement discussed in this book have come out just in time for Halloween.
The most obvious question to those interested in history is how did we get into this mess? Glen Beck proposes some answers in his new book. In 416 pages Beck recounts numerous historical examples (mainly in the first part of this book) of our drift from limited constitutional government, and towards unlimited government- which in our case came to mean unlimited spending. Washington politicians have been promising us more and more over time, mostly in the form of so-called entitlements. Washington politicians have hid their recklessness from us with these unfunded entitlements, well at least from most of us. Economists like Kotlikoff, and also Martin Feldstein, have been warning us about these fiscal imbalances for decades. Now the total sum of these legislated promises is more than American taxpayers can possibly pay. The establishment of entitlements and increased spending in general was done in the name of `progressivism'. Now these supposedly progressive programs threaten future economic progress.
The most obvious question to practically minded people is: how do we get out of this mess? Beck's answer is simple- and highly plausible. Part three argues that we need to return to constitutionally limited government, one where individual states are sovereign, government is decentralized, and individuals bear personal responsibility for their actions. Beck claims that this move involves shared sacrifice, and `shared sacrifice'. We especially need to start taking the 10th amendment seriously. Beck is thinking in terms of what economists call, The Tragedy of the Commons. Nobody cares for a genuine commons because no single person bears significant private costs for depleting common resources. Our Federal commons is effectively broke because everyone takes and tries to avoid contributing. It will never work.
Beck has a reputation as a political partisan; however this book is critical of politicians in both political parties. While it is obvious that Democrats created the biggest fiscal problems (Social Security and Medicare), many Republicans have participated in "the crime of the century". Readers can draw whatever conclusions they want from this book. However, the issues this book addresses are real and important, and Beck has made a serious effort to explain all of this to the general public. This problem is not simply going to go away. America needs major fiscal restructuring, and this will require a move back to limited government.
This book will certainly ignite further controversy, and that's probably a good thing. We are broke, and must do something about our fiscal situation sooner or later. Anyone interested in either American history or America's future should at least look at this book.
Questions and Answers
Broke - The Plan to Restore Our Trust, Truth and Treasure (free download) : In the words of Harvard historian Niall Ferguson, the United States is "an empire on the edge of chaos." Why? Glenn Beck thinks the answer is pretty simple: Because we've turned our backs on the Constitution.
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Dave Forrest (creator of Colour Burn and Nothing In Transit) is back with Deception, a new collection of close-up magic bearing all the hallmarks that have made Dave one of magic's most respected creators. This, the first volume of Deception, is quite literally bursting with clever concepts, astonishing routines, devious moves and diabolical gaffs!
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