A thoughtful, if overextended, critique of big government.
A debut book presents a diagnosis of the U.S.’s current political ailments, coupled with a litany of suggested reforms.
Stockdell begins his study with a grim appraisal of America’s current state of health; it’s not merely that the economy is in tatters, but that the political class is no longer generally trusted to trigger a turnaround. The principal problem seems to be monstrously bloated government, practically ineffective, fiscally prodigal, and highly vulnerable to corruption. The author analyzes the inherent failings of a centralized bureaucracy while reflecting on his own experiences as a civil servant. Stockdell particularly objects to government’s heavy-handed attempts to either coerce behavior or provide the kinds of services best offered by the private sector. He discusses the psychological motivations behind big government ideology, which largely embrace the impatient impulse to technocratically solve every problem quickly, or the self-aggrandizement of government officials. The author also furnishes a broad historical context, detailing the way leftist politics in the U.S. has borrowed from the failed legacy of European political theory: “In recent years, the progressive ideology has morphed into a form of socialism, which believes in the absolute dominance of the government and radical redistribution of wealth.” Ultimately, the nation’s problems are so systemically deep, he recommends a Constitutional Convention that, among other things, makes it easier for the public to directly initiate Constitutional reform. He suggests some amendments, too: for example, term limits for members of Congress and federal judges and limits on campaign spending. This is a wide-ranging analysis that covers everything from gun control to the Electoral College. The author certainly has his political commitments (the book is inspired by Friedrich Hayek’s The Road to Serfdom, which advocates individualism), but each section is written with impressive bipartisan moderation. Stockdell often anticipates rational objections to his policy preferences and furnishes reasonable responses to them. The book covers far too much ground, and so the work turns out to be pithy rather than deep, something one might anticipate from the immodest title. It can also be delightfully quirky: there’s an extended aside on postmodern thought. There isn’t much new here philosophically, but the author contributes some concrete policy proposals worthy of consideration.
A thoughtful, if overextended, critique of big government.Pub Date: June 25, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-5245-0817-3
Page Count: 314
Publisher: Xlibris
Review Posted Online: Oct. 14, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Occasionally wonky but overall a good case for how the dismal science can make the world less—well, dismal.
“Quality of life means more than just consumption”: Two MIT economists urge that a smarter, more politically aware economics be brought to bear on social issues.
It’s no secret, write Banerjee and Duflo (co-authors: Poor Economics: A Radical Rethinking of the Way To Fight Global Poverty, 2011), that “we seem to have fallen on hard times.” Immigration, trade, inequality, and taxation problems present themselves daily, and they seem to be intractable. Economics can be put to use in figuring out these big-issue questions. Data can be adduced, for example, to answer the question of whether immigration tends to suppress wages. The answer: “There is no evidence low-skilled migration to rich countries drives wage and employment down for the natives.” In fact, it opens up opportunities for those natives by freeing them to look for better work. The problem becomes thornier when it comes to the matter of free trade; as the authors observe, “left-behind people live in left-behind places,” which explains why regional poverty descended on Appalachia when so many manufacturing jobs left for China in the age of globalism, leaving behind not just left-behind people but also people ripe for exploitation by nationalist politicians. The authors add, interestingly, that the same thing occurred in parts of Germany, Spain, and Norway that fell victim to the “China shock.” In what they call a “slightly technical aside,” they build a case for addressing trade issues not with trade wars but with consumption taxes: “It makes no sense to ask agricultural workers to lose their jobs just so steelworkers can keep theirs, which is what tariffs accomplish.” Policymakers might want to consider such counsel, especially when it is coupled with the observation that free trade benefits workers in poor countries but punishes workers in rich ones.
Occasionally wonky but overall a good case for how the dismal science can make the world less—well, dismal.Pub Date: Nov. 12, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-61039-950-0
Page Count: 432
Publisher: PublicAffairs
Review Posted Online: Aug. 28, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2019
SEEN & HEARD
A forceful, necessarily provocative call to action for the preservation and protection of American Jewish freedom.
Known for her often contentious perspectives, New York Times opinion writer Weiss battles societal Jewish intolerance through lucid prose and a linear playbook of remedies.
While she was vividly aware of anti-Semitism throughout her life, the reality of the problem hit home when an active shooter stormed a Pittsburgh synagogue where her family regularly met for morning services and where she became a bat mitzvah years earlier. The massacre that ensued there further spurred her outrage and passionate activism. She writes that European Jews face a three-pronged threat in contemporary society, where physical, moral, and political fears of mounting violence are putting their general safety in jeopardy. She believes that Americans live in an era when “the lunatic fringe has gone mainstream” and Jews have been forced to become “a people apart.” With palpable frustration, she adroitly assesses the origins of anti-Semitism and how its prevalence is increasing through more discreet portals such as internet self-radicalization. Furthermore, the erosion of civility and tolerance and the demonization of minorities continue via the “casual racism” of political figures like Donald Trump. Following densely political discourses on Zionism and radical Islam, the author offers a list of bullet-point solutions focused on using behavioral and personal action items—individual accountability, active involvement, building community, loving neighbors, etc.—to help stem the tide of anti-Semitism. Weiss sounds a clarion call to Jewish readers who share her growing angst as well as non-Jewish Americans who wish to arm themselves with the knowledge and intellectual tools to combat marginalization and defuse and disavow trends of dehumanizing behavior. “Call it out,” she writes. “Especially when it’s hard.” At the core of the text is the author’s concern for the health and safety of American citizens, and she encourages anyone “who loves freedom and seeks to protect it” to join with her in vigorous activism.
A forceful, necessarily provocative call to action for the preservation and protection of American Jewish freedom.Pub Date: Sept. 10, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-593-13605-8
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Aug. 22, 2019
© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
bookshelf