Instead of asking serious questions in the political arena, Dr. Paul asks—and more importantly, answers! Though not incredibly detailed readers looking for exhaustive studies of the topics covered should look elsewhere , Dr.
It is, at times, encouraging, depressing, and sometimes downright shocking in its honesty. It is a fascinating read, even for someone who has but little interest in politics. The State , by Franz Oppenheimer. The Law , by Frederic Bastiat.
Entwined intimately with libertarian philosophy is a defense of the market economy, again based not on practical reasons though markets have shown to be the most effective way of decreasing poverty and increasing standards of living , but because it is a natural extension of individual liberty and property ownership.
Economics in One Lesson , by Henry Hazlitt. Planned Chaos , Ludwig von Mises. Recession and Recovery , by Robert Higgs. There are, of course, many objections raised to libertarianism on issues of practicality.
How would roads be provided without a state? Environmental protection? Law and order? Practical Anarchy , by Stefan Molyneux. Education: Free and Compulsory , by Murray Rothbard. The empty sports jersey to root for, regardless of ability to play the game, or the outcome. That's the only way I can reckon the absence of opposition for Obama where Bush was censured for the exact same things by the same people.
The war became just over night. Oh, politicians are evil. You can't expect any better so Lesser of two evils anyone else get told "lesser of two evils" by both Romney and Obama supporters? However you feel about Obama, if you are okay that the next president will have these same powers and you are willing to risk that they won't abuse them then you don't understand what the USA is supposed to be about.
What you are hoping for is a benevolent despot. There is a constitution so this kind of shit does not happen. The federal government shouldn't be in control over everyone's lives. That means the rest of the world too. They are not supposed to own us. The government is only supposed to work for the people. USA history is filled with law breaking.
The draft that turned citizens into slaves. The Korean war when Truman acted without congress. Troops are still there. There are American troops in countries around the world. Obama and Bush would follow in his law breaking footsteps. Ron Paul has a valid point that there should not still be American troops in Germany! Whatever the "good intentions", a government that sets out to impose their will on another will end up a dictator.
I can't take seriously that governments that "disrespect women" should be bombed. Is the USA going to bomb all of the places in the world that disrespect women? Where will it end? Or is that just the countries that have oil and make the corporations very, very rich? I believe that constitutional lawyer Glenn Greenwald has identified a fatal contradiction in these claims.
If it is true that the executive branch knew the locations of so many people with al Qaeda links, why were they seeking merely to eavesdrop on their conversations? Why were they not arresting them instead?
This, after all, is an administration that has detained people indefinitely, without charges, on the basis of some shaky evidence of an al Qaeda connection. This time, we are supposed to believe that the administration had knowledge of countless al Qaeda figures and decided to let them remain free?
Not plausible, and that is why it seems likely that the targets of this surveillance included many Americans who had no ties to al Qaeda or terrorism at all. Did you know that the USA monitors all pharmaceutical use of every American? That's not covered in this book it does get into the mandatory mental health screenings and subsequent mandatory prescription use for school children. I had not known about this.
Why didn't I know about this if we have a free press Oh, right. The hand holding of the people. Do people want the government to control this much of their lives?
It isn't just the federal government, of course. Zoning restaurants out of poor neighborhoods because they aren't smart enough to make the right choices? The hell? I know everyone knows about the illegal big gulps in NYC. The revolution says that the government does not tell you what to eat.
That is what freedom is. The revolutionary ideas include that the federal reserve stop printing money. This makes everyone poorer by devaluing their money. I have deep concerns that the American people are nothing but a personal piggy bank and reserve of fleshly fodder for corporations to send out to fight their overseas interests. Pointless and endless wars over seas that cost trillions of dollars.
More money is printed. Who is paying for it all? I know who is benefiting from it. Follow the money, as Lester Freamon on The Wire was fond of saying. Who got billions in campaign donations from Goldman Saks? Who gave the banks bail outs? The media turns a blind eye to what is going on. Who gave campaign donations to both candidates? Rupert Murdoch, who monopolizes the media. Hey, aren't monopolies supposed to be illegal? Not anymore. Ron Paul also illustrates how big business lobbys the government for restrictions they know their little competitors will not be able to meet.
What happened to "job creating", anyway, and the "free market correcting itself"? The job creating that appeared suddenly before this election time was because due to the Obama Care restrictions on employers to pay for health insurance after a certain number of full time employees. The full time hours were changed from 40 to That means that a lot of employees were dropped down to 29 hours a week to keep them from being full time. More part time jobs.
Could you live on 29 hours a week? If you aren't full time that means you are not getting health care. National health care, eh? No single payer plan was implemented. It is not national health care. Not to mention if you a preexisting condition [fat people are included in this, I don't know if many people know that] you cannot get covered.
If you get sick you still get fired. If you get fired and lose health insurance you will be liable for what the insurance had paid before that point. America is a cruel country. Health costs go up first because of the printing money out of the Fed Reserve.
It's comforting to know that the government has been spending the only program that had a surplus, social security. Something that they are legally obligated to do! I wonder how long before "They are going to die anyway" is trotted out about the elderly.
Why did government meddle in health care in the first place?! Why was this their job? It wasn't supposed to be. It shouldn't be revolutionary that the Patriot act should not be. Americans should not be indefinitely detained for "terrorism" and I will keep saying this because the media does not and now gangs and drugs. The war on terror is now permanent.
The loss of liberties occur during war time. Does that scare the shit out of you too? Torture is illegal, of course. Still happens. Remember when Obama said he was gonna get rid of Gitmo in ? National security, oh yeah. Somehow Americans are in danger and there are multiple wars raging that no one can afford. Is anyone defending the usa? Because terrorism had nothing at all to do with the "crippling sanctions"?
Do you feel safe because they can spy on us all? I don't. By the way, my hometown is a drone site. Ron Paul still had hope that America could pull out of this crisis in I wonder if he still feels that way. He had had hope too. That was before the bail outs. No strings attached bail outs that everyone now knows were used to give out bonuses to the executives who caused the mess in the first place.
Why were they given these bail outs with no restrictions? Why were bail outs given to Europe! Two under the table without the knowledge of the American people, no less.
The German president was vilified for actually asking for austerity measures for Greece. What happened? Everyone knows that they did what the American bankers did. Bonuses for the criminals. Bail outs shouldn't have happened in the first place. The media tells us that Obama is a hero to Europeans.
This is a great book about asking the questions that Americans should be asking and their representatives are not going to talk about unless it is demanded that they talk about them. I'm pretty ignorant about economics Paul suggests some places to start for beginners.
There's even a reading list at the back of the book for those who want to become better informed. I don't know how I feel about the gold standard idea. I do know that printing more and more money is the worst thing to do.
Gold can't be printed out of the whim of the administration so there is that. I don't see eye to eye with Paul on abortion, exactly, but it does make me ever so sore when I hear people talk about abortion as if it is the ONLY issue that should ever come up during election time. See, that's a big problem. Why are the American people ignoring all of these issues that really and truly do effect their lives, and the lives of their children? I do think Paul has a point that people shouldn't cede rights from the states because they think some of them will make "the wrong choice".
I can't tell you how much I don't agree that my state has the death penalty. I have voted against it every chance I have had. We still have it. Would I want it to be decided by the federal government and then get a president that feels as the current governor of Texas does they've had executions during his term? Too much power to one person is bad is the idea, right? I do wonder about people who are okay with millions of deaths in war rather than using birth control please don't take me the wrong way here.
I find the idea that anyone should be forced to have a baby absolutely abhorrent. It drove me crazy when a favorite musician, John Darnielle of The Mountain Goats, twittered the other day that people should vote for the candidate least likely to overturn roe vs. I know this is a prevalent attitude from people I have talked to in my real life. I have to ask why? If there was one issue that I saw eye to eye with Ron Paul on more than anything else it was ending the war on drugs. People should not be in prison for a health issue.
Clinton went against the constitution when he prosecuted users of marijuana where it was legal to use it for medical reasons. I didn't know how the war on drugs began.
A senator on the floor of the Texas senate said: "All Mexicans are crazy, and this stuff is what makes them crazy. It became against the law in instead of the tax charade you could still call it an act, I suppose. The war on drugs has ruined communities, lives, imprisoned countless people. If the history of American government teaches us anything, it is that the time to fight oppressive and absurd programs is before they are established, since once they are in place they are essentially impossible to dismantle.
They need to be blocked before they have a chance to start. Otherwise, local programs with federal funding will grow larger and larger and be found in many more localities, until we finally have a mandatory federal screening program. This is how it always works. One more thing: the loss of the right to protest.
Why is this being allowed to be given up? Isn't that one of our fundamental rights? One of the things that made the usa what it was? How change happened? The revolution is don't give up what the usa is all about.
Don't let anyone take it away from you. If the government doesn't have too much power you don't have to be terrified that the wrong guy could get elected into office. View all 7 comments. I spoke too soon. I guess I should have trusted Ryan. This book was wonderful. I felt Ron Paul is a much better writer than speaker. I really enjoyed learning about the purpose of the constitution.
I agree with the philosophy of smaller government and more liberty and independence for the people. His economics chapter was my favorite. Great reminder that we don't work for the government, the government works for us.
Taxes- great reminder that if we completely got rid of taxes, the FED budget wou I spoke too soon. Not so bad huh? All the info. It made me really think about the goals of our founding fathers and how I envision America. It puts the responsibility back on communities, families, and church's to guide the people.. Perhaps I am a Libertarian afterall.
This book made me passionate about politics and what I believe. We shall see. Now I need to do more research on politics and economics.
Best read in a long time! View 2 comments. Jun 27, Darcie rated it it was amazing. This book was a fascinating eye-opener for me. I started reading it because I was curious as to Ron Paul's core beliefs. He was ridiculed and pushed aside during the republican debates that I watched, so I became curious as to why they would not let him be heard.
His ideas are in fact nothing new to the American tradition. It's just that we have gone so far astray from constitutional government that these ideas now seem revolutionary.
Small government, non-interventionist foreign policy, fiscal This book was a fascinating eye-opener for me. Small government, non-interventionist foreign policy, fiscal responsibility and free trade are the heart of our nation. More and more of our personal rights and liberties have been taken away in the name of the "greater good" by the government, who should not pretend to be a moral authority. Paul outlines his ideas on how we can get back to basics and what needs to be done to reign it all in again.
His examples are well researched, intelligent and inspired. This book has changed my views and given me hope for our future. I recommend it to all Americans. Even if you do not agree with all of the opinions expressed, there is much to be learned about the way our government works by reading this book. View 1 comment. Jan 19, Krista rated it it was amazing Shelves: education , history-ish , politics-issues.
LOVED it!!! I admit, I thought Ron Paul was this close to a loon during the election. His positions - and the shorter, more strident sound bytes from his supporters - just seemed so impractical. The staging of his ideas in ALL media simply reinforced my perception and convinced me that I didn't have to bother researching what he actually said, or why.
I was wrong - not just in my assessment of him, but in my lazy, dismissive, and I might even say "sheeple-ish" approach to his candida LOVED it!!! I was wrong - not just in my assessment of him, but in my lazy, dismissive, and I might even say "sheeple-ish" approach to his candidacy, as well. Thank goodness for a patient friend!
Additionally, his explanation of the issues we have with our money supply was the first that actually sunk in for me; I'd heard the words before, but they honestly never really came together sensibly until reading his explanation. This book is full of coherent, consistent facts and philosophies. Please, if you have any interest in politics, economics, ethics, or security, give this book a read. Whether you agree with him or not, at least you'll know what you're talking about!
Nov 11, Breck rated it liked it. I think most conservatives are fans of Ron Paul that simply don't know it yet. As the Republican party has changed over the last several years we have lost sight of what it means to be a conservative. Conservative once meant being an advocate of small fed gov't, less intervention, with a reliance on sound fiscal policy.
I think the problem with Ron Paul is he h I think most conservatives are fans of Ron Paul that simply don't know it yet. I think the problem with Ron Paul is he has been labeled as an isolationist and an extremist. Everyone would do well to read this book and get a better insight into his beliefs and opinions. The more I read the more I realized that Paul is right on many accounts. I was a Ron Paul fan all along and simply didn't know it.
As far as foreign policy goes he is a "noninterventionist", not isolationist. He believes we need to trade and interact with other nations but do so delicately. He believes we need to reduce the size of the fed gov't and cites the numerous problems that have resulted in gov't intrusion. I definitely recommend this book and believe if we want to turn the gov't around the only revolution that will save us is a conservative revolution, a return to sound, conservative principles applied to an ever-changing world.
View all 3 comments. Jul 25, Claire marked it as to-read. Five minutes of reading this at random has, three or four times now, proved more informative about the economic workings of our country than any number of months keeping up with headline news. It's also remarkably sane and intelligent. Take this quote, for instance: Abolishing the income tax on individuals would cut government revenue by about 40 percent.
I have heard the breathless claims about how radical that is--and compared to the trivial changes we are accustomed to seeing in government, I Five minutes of reading this at random has, three or four times now, proved more informative about the economic workings of our country than any number of months keeping up with headline news.
I have heard the breathless claims about how radical that is--and compared to the trivial changes we are accustomed to seeing in government, I suppose it is. But in absolute terms, is it really so radical? In order to imagine what it would be like to live in a country with a federal budget 40 percent lower than the federal budget of , it would be necessary to go all the way back to Would it be so hard to imagine living in again?
In return, we would have an economy so robust and dynamic that it would doubtless shatter even my own optimistic expectations Jun 17, Steve rated it liked it. I read this book at my brother's request after he went to hear Ron Paul speak a while back. I agreed with almost all of the problems he presented in the book, but needless to say, my liberal leanings had some problems with some of the solutions he presented. Abolishing income tax, smaller government, more states rights are not the answers I don't think.
While I agreed with most of the civil liberties chapter, I don't think that homeschooling is a "right" people have. He presented his arguments a I read this book at my brother's request after he went to hear Ron Paul speak a while back. He presented his arguments a bit strangely as well.
Sometimes he credited his quotes to "a philosopher who once said
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