This book by Mark Steyn is not for politically correct Liberals. There is humor mixed in with the dire predictions, but a friend said he didn’t finish the book because he tired of the “cutesy humor.”
On the dark side, the author writes, “America has caught up with Europe in the great rush to self destruction.” Financial collapse is predicted to be facilitated by “…hapless, indulgent people who think government has the answer for every problem…” An example of wit amidst the doomsday prophesies is that “Nobody writes a doomsday tome because they want it to come true. From an author’s point of view, the apocalypse is not helpful because the bookstores get looted and the collapse of the banking system makes it harder to cash the royalty check.”
To emphasize the insanity of our government and election process there is an insightful reference to Senator Michael Bennet of Colorado, my home state. Bennett voted for all the “…trillion dollar binges…” He then said “We have managed to acquire $13 billion of debt on our balance sheet. In my view, we have nothing to show for it.” Colorado voters then reelected Bennet. The source of the debt is at least as troubling as the magnitude. “If the People’s Republic (of China) carries on buying American debt at the rate it has in recent times, then within a few years U.S. interest payments on that debt will be covering the entire cost of the Chinese armed forces.”
What did stimulus accomplish? Quite a bit if you were a government employee. At the start of the economic crisis there was one Department of Transportation employee earning more than $170,000 per year. Eighteen months later there were 1,690. “In the year after “stimulus” was passed the private sector had lost 2.5 million jobs and the federal bureaucracy had gained 416,000. In 2009 the average U.S. government employee was earning about $123,000 in salary and benefits while the average American in the private sector was earning a total of about $61,000.
The Chinese might be building a military to challenge America, but they have problems too. The one-child policy means that“…unless it’s planning on becoming the first gay superpower since Sparta, the millions of surplus young men…deprived of female companionship is a recipe either for wrenching social convulsions at home—or for war abroad, the traditional surplus inventory clearance method of great powers.”
I found one nugget of hope for America early in the book. Reports about protests of people who want the government to do more for them have dominated the European news. By comparison, millions of Americans have taken to the streets to tell the government they can do just fine if the government will “…just stay the hell out of my life and my pocket.” (Of course much of the media and some politicians have at a minimum made fun of those protestors, and in some circumstances called them racists.)
The book is filled with disturbing examples of how bureaucracy trumps common sense. It now takes so long for the FDA to approve new drugs that people are dying while they wait for the approval to take the drugs. Cynics are calling the new approval process “…the valley of death.” FEMA sent volunteer firefighters who wanted to help out in the Katrina disaster to Atlanta for diversity training. An inspector prevented a Catholic church from selling homemade pies for a fund raiser unless the volunteer bakers paid $35 dollars apiece to be cleared by a health inspection. On the other side was a woman attending a “federal aid” gathering said she was there to get some money. When asked where the money would come from, she said “Obama money.” When asked the source of the money, she said, “I don’t know. His stash.”
Other disturbing signs of bureaucracy are the examples of emergency workers refusing to rescue people. Police wouldn’t rescue a drowning woman because that was the responsibility of the Fire and Rescue service. Three college students did save her. Police stood watching while a 5 year old girl was trapped in a submerged car, because they were prevented from diving in by safety regulations. A fireman did rescue a drowning girl and was sent to disciplinary investigation. A rescue crew stood by after a person fell into a mine shaft because a recent memo had banned the use of rope equipment. There has also been a loss of chivalry. The rule “women and children first” was mostly followed on the Titanic. When a German ferry sank recently only five percent of the women passengers lived. Forty-three percent of the young men 20 to 24 made it. (Apparently women objecting to doors being held for them has had a negative effect.)
Part of our problem is that high schools are graduating young people who aren’t equipped to do a job. We then send them to years of college to that is costly and ineffective. Testing shows that many college students do not improve their critical thinking skills after two years or even by the time they graduate. The students do accumulate tens of thousands of dollars in student loan debt.
The author is quite critical of the manner in which the world has dealt with the issue of Muslim extremism. He points out that there was a time when the Muslim world seemed to be becoming “Westernized,” but the radical Muslims have put an end to that. There was a photo of the Cairo University class of 1978 with every woman bare-headed. The 2004 class photo shows “…every woman hijabed to the hilt.”
The author makes his point about the comparison of private enterprise to the government with a story about a bridge in New Hampshire. The government studied the project for six years and estimated the total cost at $655,000. They estimated the bridge could be completed in another several years and admitted the cost would probably more than double. The town contracted with a private firm to build a bridge that complied with safety requirements for $30,000.
The book often refers to the H.G. Wells book “The Time Machine.” There are references to the elegant and oblivious Eloi who are living happy lives while the Morlocks also happily prey on the Eloi. Time travel is used to emphasize how much changed in the world from 1890 to 1950, and how relatively little technology has been developed since. However, the U.S. government has had massive growth.
The book ends with the observation that people still have a chance to change the path of the country if they would only stop voting for politicians who want more money to increase the size and reach of government. “This is the battle for the “American idea…to reprise the lamest of lame-o-lines—you can do anything you want to do. So do it.”