How to Ruin the United States of America | 
 enlarge | Authors: Ben Stein, Phil Demuth
Publisher: New Beginnings Press
Category: Book
List Price: $14.95
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Avg. Customer Rating:  7 reviews
Sales Rank: 7080
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 176
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 7.1 x 5.3 x 0.8
ISBN: 1401918697
Dewey Decimal Number: 973.93
EAN: 9781401918699
ASIN: 1401918697
Publication Date: June 30, 2008
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
On the heels of his very successful books, How to Ruin Your Life, How to Ruin Your Love Life, and How to Ruin Your Financial Life, Ben Stein, in collaboration with his pal Phil DeMuth, has tongue firmly in cheek once again as he comes up with surefire ways to ruin the greatest nation in the history of the human race. Try a few of these on for size: Trust the United Nations to protect us and our security. Make it unlawful to worship God or even to show images of the Ten Commandments. Convert our universities into fortresses of anti-Americanism, hatred of freedom, and centers of confusion and ignorance. Encourage contempt for the family and for the community. Allow Hollywood to brainwash us into believing that only suckers and criminals fight for their country. Treat the military, the police, firefighters, and teachers as losers and pay them starvation wages. Hey, does any of this sound familiar? Maybe that’s because it’s already happening! Ben and Phil give you all the information you’ll ever need in order to successfully ruin the USA even further! Sardonic, humorous, but also angrily emphatic, this is a book every old-fashioned patriot really needs to read!
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| Customer Reviews: Read 2 more reviews...
 Marvelously Serene Book August 17, 2008
The always affable, calm. cool and collected Chuck Norris expresses
his walk-tall-but-carry-a-big-shtick philosophy of life, based on his
Buddhist beliefs and his martial arts training and focus of life.
It is a very appealing book, easy to read.
Good Advice July 31, 2008
1 out of 3 found this review helpful
Enjoyed this book very much
a refreshing break from all the liberal GARBAGE we're bombarded with daily
Concise and Open-Minded! July 28, 2008
6 out of 7 found this review helpful
In "How to Ruin the United States" I expected to see the standard conservative line, given Stein's conservative background. Instead, I was pleased to instead find thoughtful comments, documented with a few facts, as appropriate.
I especially liked his sections on "Voodoo Economics" and immigration. Stein believes our government is engaged in economic malpractice by running large deficits during times of prosperity, pushing the Kool-Aid of supply-side economics that says cutting taxes gives us something for nothing, and persecuting the oil industry - vital to our survival.
Stein reports that the discounted present value of unfunded liabilities from Medicare and Social Security total $88.2 trillion as of 2007 - about $290,000 per citizen, and 6X our annual GDP. He also asserts that the 2006 drug benefit costs are even larger, though I'm not certain I'm on board with that conclusion.
Milton Friedman attributed about 60% of the increase in health care costs to U.S. involvement in Medicare and Medicaid; the proportion of government spending on health care has risen from 1/8 in 1919 to about one-half in 1997.
Turning to our ballooning federal deficits, Stein attributes them largely to Arthur Laffer's theory - introduced without benefit of validity during Reagan's terms. Supposedly, people would work harder if they were taxed less, resulting in an overall increase in collected taxes. Reality, however, is that the number of hours worked/week has barely moved since Bush's tax cuts, and are considerably less than 1959 when the top bracket was nearly 80%. Further, overall labor-forced participation has hardly changed since Bush's cuts.
Almost $1 trillion in personal income taxes was collected in 2000, prior to the cuts; this dropped to $794 billion in 2003, and only returned to $1 trillion in 2006. Meanwhile, our national debt had gone up over $2 trillion. (Stein does concede that corporate profits did increase - on the other hand, what else could they do when tax expenses were decreased?)
Stein is also concerned about increasing income inequality, seeing it as a moral issue. As for those accusing oil companies of price-fixing, Stein easily dismisses their conspiracy theories with long-term data showing inflation-adjusted oil prices (until recently) lower than decades prior.
Stein also considered immigration (especially illegal) to be an important topic. He traces that problem's start to legislation passed by Sen. Kennedy in 1965, along with subsequent amnesty etc. programs. Anchor babies, relatives, sham marriages, etc. acerbate the problem, while their numbers and failure to assimilate clearly undermines American culture.
Interesting, and refreshing!
 I expected solutions July 23, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Pros
-A very easy to read book
-You get a mix of history, with a few problems that are present.
-Book has a few good proposals.
Cons:
-Unfortunately too often he sounds like the old man rambling about the end of America because media outlets are free to air whatever they want. We could just go back to early 20th century and let government tell us what news we receive and allow "instant shutdowns" of those who didn't comply. This is all because TV stations air too much Lindsay Lohan. I don't watch this kind of news, but its called capitalism, lay off.
-Provides too many surface facts, doesn't go deep enough into issues. The book provides polls with too many outliers. A poll like that claims more TV watching leads to fewer morals? This is one of the many "wacky" polls. Hey Ben/Phil do you think age/income/location has anything to do with hours spent watching TV? And I bet no one lied on those polls, especially on a poll about morality. No! No one would lie on those polls.
--Devotes a portion of a chapter to a "history quiz", never provides the answers.
--Dismisses Supply-side economics and Keynesian Economics. Thinks high taxes are the answer, what about low to no spending? My guess (which you have to do because their answers to the problems are not usually given) is they believe in a mix, more on the Keynesian side. Saying the rich should pay higher taxes. You can only raise their taxes so much, and the top 1% income earners pays 40% of our spending.
--Calls American airheads, and then follows that with "why do liberals beat down America?" Maybe the high tax society which you propose would make people even dumber. (People are poor, able to afford less education/books)
--The book doesn't clearly state who wrote which chapter, which leads you to believe they completely agree on every subject. (I though Ben Stein would have had better ideas.)
Summary: Decent book that dismisses too many ideas without providing a reasonable alternative. It may provide problems, but little to no clear answers. Going in I thought Mr. Stein followed beliefs closer to supply-side economics, guess I was wrong.
I saw way too many instances of him complaining that people complain about America, and then a few pages later he would start his complaining.
I read this book very quickly, so maybe I misinterpreted some things although I don't believe I have.
Politically, I am a conservative (maybe libertarian), and this book unfortunately is more of the right-wing wanting to control people's lives. In this book Stein/Demuth want to pick and choose what should be controlled, which is always faulty logic.
Feel free to comment/clear up any problems with my review.
Our Country July 20, 2008
9 out of 11 found this review helpful
This book should be required reading for Americans who do not think ours is a great country. Those who do not believe that we are surrounded by enemies should read this book. Those who criticize and mock our core values should examine the book.
Stein and DeMuth outline the basic values on which our country was built: a belief in God, a belief in ethical behavior, a belief in freedom, and a willingness to fight to defend our way of life. The authors point out how a liberal media and a liberal academe have helped create a moralless community of lazy complainers in our country. If you're the sort who snickers at phrases like "My country right or wrong" you would not enjoy this book.
The authors offer great insight about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the threats from Iran, North Korea, and Venezuela. They point out the ill effects of an open-borders immigration policy. They assert that a crisis looms because of the unfunded demands of Social Security and Medicare combined with a cut-taxes-but-spend-anyway government, all riding on a stupendous national debt.
It's a great little book.
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