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Summary: Government of the rules, by the rules, and for the rules
Review: Soviet style central planning didn't work because it couldn't think and judge. Strangely we have in the effort to become entirely fair to everyone all the time evoled a system of rules and regulations that defies common sense. No wonder we feel hemmed in and overburdened. Philip Howard, an attorney, explains how this is happening but doesn't seem to have a clearly focused solution. We need a restoration of American democracy and more power to the people. A good place to start is by understanding problems by reading this book.
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Summary: What happened to Common Sense is right! Where'd it go?
Review: Terrific. Government gridlock explained. How it all got started and how it all got out of hand. He gives many examples that will have you shaking your head in disgust. What got my goat was the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). What a bunch of ruthless selfish people involved in that. The idea is right but in practice it is abused. To think that gifted children (the future brains of our country/world), in comparison to disabled children (kids who don't even know they are alive etc.), receive virtually NO support or attention from America's school system. These disabled kids, who will never fully function in the world, now take precedence over the normal and gifted kids. And who's paying for all this costly extra attention, programs, teachers, classrooms for these autistic/severly retarded/catatonic kids? YOU with your taxes. What happened to Perspective. Priorities. Majority rules. Reason. Statistics. Compromise. Common sense is right! I had no idea this was going on. It's absurd. Wrong. I live in a town of 7,500 out in the boonies and have seen only ONE (1) wheelchaired person, yet our town is wheelchair fitted thru out. Even on the steep hillside streets where no wheelchair could possible go. In fact that one wheelchaired person is forcing our little library to put in all new restroom facilities that are wheelchair friendly. The librarian told me it has taken most all of her budget. Which she says means no new computers or books till next year. As it is now they can only afford to open for 4 days (6hr. days) outta 7. I never thought too much about it until now after having read this book. But now, Mr. Howard, how do we change it? Your next project is to lay out a step by step guide we the voters can follow to correct this mess. I'd like to see Mr. Howard on TV. Maybe on The Point With Greta Van Susteren, CourtSide with Roger Cossack or Larry King ... This is an eye opener of a book and should be required reading for all.
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Summary: Interesting, disturbing, and frustrating.
Review: The atmosphere in America has changed. "Americans feel on a daily basis that their society is falling apart, that things aren't working right." Mr. Howard is exactly right. Although Mr. Trafficant who was...expelled from Congress may actually be guilty of the charges alleged of him. His comments about how the American people view and fear their government, the judicial system and the various organizations that solidify the awesome and terrifying power of the political machines in American, are in large part true. This is not because all those entities could not work if filled with virtuous men and women as the Federalist Papers charge. But because they have been bogged down in 200 plus years of misdirection, partisanship and political corruption, the kind of corruption that seeps into any long running program, party, powerful entity or political machine. We could fix this degradation in our national political process by moving back onto a better path. But influential people today have, as Mr. Richard Maybury says in his excellent "Uncle Eric" series of books, on government and finances, lost their mental, emotional and political view of the true and best "American model" for our nation politically, socially, morally and judiciously. All it would take to fix this would be the will of the people united in a common cause to once again "create that more perfect union," or MODEL spoken of in the Preamble to our Constitution. It could be done, it should be done, but the question is do we have the will to make it come to pass? One draw back to excessive diversity is a lack of cohesiveness on the important issues that face our nation and the world. It is astounding that the summation of all the laws ever written since it's creation are already contained in the precepts, principles, and guidance given and envisioned within the Preamble to the Constitution, and the Articles and the Amendments that go with it. It is such a shame that nations tend to legislate and opinionate themselves into nonexistence. Even when they have it right, they seem to need to interfere and make things worse. Mr. Howard has done all of us a great service by producing this book and it is unfortunate that it has not received the prominence and accolades it is due, a great read...
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Summary: This Philip K. Howard must be a communist.
Review: The audacity of this character, attacking the United States of America. Everything is perfect here and if your life isn't perfect you should kill yourself. How dare Phillip K. Howard attack the well thoughtout and organized system of judicial law and bureaucratic harmony that myself and others have built up around us. Spend a little less time on your knees and maybe you'll end up like me. Monica Lewinsky spent some time on her knees but now she's going to be a rich and fabulous bore. 46x2
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Summary: To Build a Better Bureaucrat
Review: The Death of Common Sense by Philip K. Howard is a mostly anecdotal work about the litigious society that America has become. Howard relates several stories about people and organizations who have been minding their own business or who have actively engaged in good works who have been stifled by an overzealous bureaucracy intent upon enforcing government regulations originally intended to promote the public welfare. These regulations, in the instances cited by Howard, have actually contributed to a decrease in the public welfare as prosperous citizens and charitably inclined organizations have been hounded by them. It isn't the regulations that Howard is protesting against per se. His work is more geared towards what the title reflects, a lapse in judgement by those who enforce these regulations. Howard doesn't admit that these regulations were intended for good and have, in many instances, been used for such. This is where the weakness in Howard's argument lies. He seems to be protesting against all enforcement of these regulations as contrary to the public welfare. Another weakness in Howard's work is his pleading for a return to an era when common sense supposedly reigned. The fact is that all bureaucracies are highly fallible. They are composed of human beings immersed in a world of rules and procedure. Oftentimes the rule becomes supreme over its enforcement because the rule is the reason for the enforcers job. Howard, like most people, has no method for correcting this flaw of human nature. If machines could somehow undertake the responsibility of enforcement, then we might see a more rational approach than that currently employed by humans. Failing that though, we just have to do what Howard has done: hope for more reasonable bureaucrats.
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Summary: Good if You Like a Rant (And Who Doesn't?)
Review: The Death of Common Sense, by Philip Howard is a good rant about the short-comings in our present system of government, two large components of which are an enormous bureaucracy and a built-in tendency for litigiousness. Howard does achieve his goal of describing how law is suffocating America, the subtitle of the book. But, as I have already said, this is a rant: one-sided, with few suggestions about how to change government for the better (other than to quit the big bureaucracy and endless litigation). Mr. Howard continually (and rightly) raises the point that our government, while striving to be fair in its actions to everyone, achieves this by accomplishing very little. A fine example provided by the author is the case of a group of nuns that wanted to buy and restore an unoccupied building in New York to serve as a shelter for the homeless. However, a city ordinance requiring that new, multi-story buildings be equipped with elevators pushed the charitable project beyond the practical budget of the nuns. On the one had, it makes sense to plan new buildings with those people that can not easily climb stairs in mind. On the other hand, inflexibly requiring such expensive accommodations puts affordable housing out of the reach of many Americans. It is impossible to please everyone, but the law should allow us to try and please someone! Philip K. Howard makes a strong case, but he does not suggest much in the way of a fix. I found, also, that his views were quite one-sided. If you are someone in favor of big, meddle-some, liberal government, then you probably won't find Howard's arguments that convincing-he'll just sound like some guy with a beef against how his government spends so much time and money to make sure that everyone has the same opportunities. If you are more of a libertarian, then you will probably agree with Mr. Howard and feel more outrage than you already do after reading his numerous anti-overregulation anecdotes. I would have found the book to be much stronger if Howard had tried to build an argument rather than list his complaints from a soap-box.
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Summary: Conclusory and Illusory
Review: The only common sense that is dead is the failure of Mr. Howard to support his conclusions. It is not necessary, for purposes of this review, to set forth the conclusions of Mr. Howard. It is necessary, however, to comment on the method by which Mr. Howard arrived at his conclusions. Mr. Howard cites several examples of stupidity. No one could seriously dispute that. From those examples, Mr. Howard makes several quantum leaps to arrive at conclusions that are not validly logical. I didn't say they defy logic. They may, in fact, be correct. But Mr. Howard's conclusions do not meet the test of logic and reason. They leave much to be desired. Mr. Howard's conclusions are based upon a few anecdotes. The sparcity of these anecdotes make Mr. Howard's ideas conclusory and illusory. One can support just about any conclusion if the basis of the conclusion are a few anecdotes. The book may not be nonsense. The ideas may be correct. This book does not, though, lay a proper foundation for its ideas and, therefore, is a waste of time to read.
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Summary: Almost Perfect
Review: The previous reviewers have all been correct: Howard does a masterful job of exposing the grave injustices and glaring inefficiencies of our hyper-regulatory bureaucratic system of governance, but fails to provide a clear and detailed solution to the problem. He recommends simplifying bureaucratic guidlines and leaving more to human judgement, but fails to argue his point with sufficient force. Still, the book is a must-read for anyone frustrated with the current state of affairs in the administration of government.
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Summary: No longer the Land of the Free
Review: The repetitive, silly prose near the end urging us to break free of the stranglehold of unjust and stupid laws (which we must) can easily be forgiven: this book exposes the arrogance and stupidity which have become "normal" legal proceedings. Like our friend Tacitus said: "The more corrupt the government, the greater number of laws." Message to God: "I will believe in You the instant every leeching lawyer that has contributed to America's current enslavement is struck by lighting!!!"
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Summary: A Hard Hitting Account of Whats Wrong the United States
Review: The United States has 5% of the worlds populaton, yet 50% of the worlds lawyers. We have a problem here, too much law, too many inflexiable rules, and too many bottom feeders (lawyers). The book describes very well everything from farmers being made criminals on their own land for working soil which is the home to some endangered and useless rodent; $1.5 billion spent some nonendangered spotted owl; nonequal equal rights; and the loss of property rights and other freedoms. The writer is to be commended for explaining how educated fools, lawyers and politicians with good educations and no common sense are strangling freedom and liberty with heavy handed and misguided law. This book is a "must read" for all citizens.
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