Rating: 
Summary: Great book - a must read
Review: This book is an easy read, but it makes you think about the stories you hear and puts information you know in perspective. John Stossel used his many years of experiences to create a book that is difficut to put down. It is filled with stories he investigated and information he has analysed. The book also shows an evolution of John Stossel's views on the world, going from the typical "jump on the hype wagon" reporter to the more thoughful "let's put it in perspective" kind. The book does not follow a political ideology, but it is definately pro-small goverment. The book shows the waste, the misallocation of funds, the overreaction that goverment frequently creates to small issues. Very interesting, very informative, very well written. I highly recommend it.
Rating:
Summary: A Clear Light in the Fog
Review: Unlike what several rabid, partisan book reviewers would have you think, Stossel's book is not about liberal vs. conservative, Democrat vs. Republican etc. It is about government waste, stifling bureaucracy and lawyers run amok, all of which hurt each and every member of our society. Stossel speaks in a clear, reasonable voice, and states his findings in a way that welcomes verification. If you are a reader that appreciates truth, then you will love this book. So many times when reading it I simply had to put it down and just shake my head in satisfaction that someone is finally calling 'the system' on so many of its innate flaws. This book should be studied by all politicians who are interested in truly changing the way things are done in this country, but sadly, I don't think any such politicians exist; so then it is up to us individual citizens to demand that these taboo, politically incorrect subjects be spotlighted and addressed by our elected representatives. Stossel strikes a strong blow for all Americans. Bravo!
Rating: 
Summary: STUPID REPUBLICANS!!!!
Review: John Stossel is an absolutely IDIOT! It is absolutely absurd for Stossel to blame liberals for ludicrous business regulations, narrowly intereped laws, and regulators acting in the interest of lobby groups. If it is not evident from the last item in the list that Stossel has lost his mind; he also tries to blame liberals for huge government, excessive taxation, and special interests. Where has he been the last 24 years, let alone the last 3? Clearly, from the beginning, Stossel intended this book to be bias support for his politcal views, rather, than an objective look at how government in general has mucked up many socio-economic issues. Give me a break.... how can you seriously blame liberals, (we will say Democrats, since Stossel clearly wants to avoid naming them out right) for big government when over the last 24 years Republican Presidents (in office for 16 of those years) under their watch have run the debt up nearly 4.8 trillion dollars. Give me a break... Democrats are to blame for special interest... Special Interests are clealy the lap-dog of the Republican Party.... George bush has run both of his election campaigns mainly on large donations from special interests... oh did I forget Halliburton... Give me a break... Democrats have been known for leveling higher tax rates, but I am sure if you ask most Americans the would rather have a Clinton economy and Clinton taxes, than a Bush economy and Bush taxes. Under Clinton the poor and middle class had a higher standard of living, States were not burdened with astronomical debt, thereby, having to cut education, Medicare and Medicaid, substantially raise tuition on College, leave roads unrepaired, emergency services with money to buy equipment and local governments flat broke. What could have been a good book, describing the failure of our justice system or poorly regulated government spending turned into one-sided support for Conservative policies. While, politics has a lot to do with so many of the problems and challenges we face in society blaming one party or one mind set is totally unacceptable. The other night on 20/20 Stossel had this Conservative "analyst" on his show to point out how great everything really is against the growing critizism of the public. This guy had the nerve to say we have better education now than we ever did, must send his kid to private school. He also said USA is the safest place to live.... you have to be kinding me... with that type of logic it is no wonders our Conservative government has screwed everything up... they cannot even see the truth right in front of them. Conservatives need to quit breathing.... now that would be a real break!!!
Rating: 
Summary: Be wary of fake reviews.
Review: I really wish the reviewers of political books would actually read the works they review. This book should not be in that category. This book is not an Ann Coulter rant, it is more of a diary. Many of the reviewers below did not understand that. For instance, the reviewer from La Quinta, CA just does not like the author. Obviously, he/she did not read, or was unable to understand the book. The reviewer says Stossel stated that the wealthiest 1% of taxpayers pay a marginal tax rate of 34%, then complains about loopholes. This is NOT what the author said, and shows that many of the reviewers have not read the book and are just here to state a political viewpoint. The actual story is about the author asking presidential candidate Al Sharpton how much of the total taxes should the top 1% pay. The Rev. Sharpton stated "somewhere around 15%". In fact the top 1% pay 34% of ALL taxes, not a 34% marginal rate. That means that the richest 1% pay a third of all taxes to the Treasury. This book is not about politics per se, but the underlying bias that pervades the media as a whole and how the open arms that Mr. Stossel received in his early days were closed shut when he disagreed with the political bias of the media itself, exposing a hypocrasy. It's an easy read, not groundbreaking, but very interesting.
Rating:
Summary: Tales from a Crusader¿s Notebook!
Review: Newsflash: Crusading reporter discovers that not all is as it seems to be! John Stossel has been a popular figure in television for many years. From his days as a consumer reporter on Channel 2 (WCBS-TV in New York) to his career with ABC, the author has made a name in exposing cheats, scams and chicanery. He once targeted the evils of business - big, small and everywhere in between. Mr. Stossel challenged claims of product effectiveness, waste, corruption and a myriad of other topics. For this, he received the admiration and affection of his peers. And then, something happened! In a self-described epiphany, the author describes, in engaging and entertaining detail, his recognition that not all that is government is good, that not all that seeks to regulate and control behavior is necessarily pure and decent. He began to expose the absurdity that is often government, bureaucracy, and the self-righteous meddling of so called public purpose activists. As Mr. Stossel refined his appreciation for the free market and increased his disdain for the unchecked exercise of freedom-threatening power of institutional advocacy, he began to look at how many aspects of advocacy not only fail to protect the interests of the general public, but in fact threaten the basic liberties of our American society. For this, he received the increasing scorn and disdain of his peers. In GIVE ME A BREAK, John Stossel takes on government waste, legalistic excess and abuse, the junk science of the liberal left and the embrace of unbridled liberal advocacy by those in the media who worship at the altar of increasingly strident governmental rules and regulations. Echoing his role on 20/20, Mr. Stossel does so in an engaging style that is at once unpretentious, yet substantive and thought provoking. The book offers Mr. Stossel's refreshing views in his inimitable style, skewering the liberal media's sacred cows. Even more refreshing, he freely admits his own mistakes over the years as he journeyed to maturity and experience. His anecdotes are quite amusing, yet illustrate his points most effectively. The only areas which give pause are the ones dealing with morality. His views in this area (solid libertarian philosophy) may not be accepted by many of the most strident free market advocates. Nonetheless, the book is a quick read, holding the reader's attention throughout. It is most entertaining, well structured from beginning to end.
Rating:
Summary: I actually read the book
Review: Notice how all the naysayers didn't even read the book. I did, it is fascinating, and would make a good gift to anyone.
Rating:
Summary: Stossel the sell-out
Review: I can remember when Stossel was actually a populist, looking out for the average Joe with his consumer reports. He gave that sort of thing up years ago. In 1996 he gave a speech to the Federalist Society, a group of conservative lawyers and told them why he quit doing consumer reporting: "I got sick of it. I also now make so much money I just lost interest in saving a buck on a can of peas."
Rating: 
Summary: Half-baked
Review: I grew up in the NY area, often seeing John Stossel on the local network news. I was happy for him when he got to 20/20 later on, like one usually feels when a local boy makes it. I had pretty much forgotten about him, but I ran into this book on a table in Barnes And Noble with all the usual talking-heads. I picked it up because I was curious how this consumer advocate could be the "scourge of the "liberal media", side-by-side with reactionary out-of-mind zealots like Bill O'Reilly or Sean Hannity (they have glowing quotes on the jacket). I sat down and read it at the store. An extremely quick read. Supposedly, Stossel became this "scourge of the liberal media" when he decided to investigate the government instead of the usual run of private-sector con-men and hucksters. And, ladies and gentlemen, get this - not only is there corruption in the private sector, but there is corruption in government! I can't believe it! John, if this is your conclusion, give me a break. The general problem with Stossel is that he uses anecdotal evidence to support his pre-conceived theories, while his specific data references are usually weak. He talks to some hobos and finds that they actually don't want to work. Thus, he concludes, that homeless/unemployed assistance programs are a sham. If a senior is financially independent and collects social security, it means that government entitlement programs are a scam. And the average joe foots the bill in taxes - that is, you, my dear reader. As for particular data examples, he has a chart of government spending over the history of the nation in 2003 dollars, supposedly proving that our government's ambitions are completely out-of-whack. Did it occur to Stossel that the population of the country has quadrupled in size from 1900? That the country is now twice as urban as it was then, requiring more social services? Did it occur to him to compare US government per capita spending with that of other industrialized nations? No, no, no. Like all reactionaries, he assumes what should have worked in the past should be fine for today. Let me just say that, I'm glad he didn't go into medicine. Or government. The whole point of this gotcha style reporting is to subvert and combat the conventional wisdom, which he calls the "liberal media." This is what sells books and is obviously why he wrote this. He actually compares the work of Michael Milken and Mother Theresa and says that Milken's work was more positively impactful and should be more honored, as his led to the creation of many corporations, tens of thousands of jobs and hordes of wealth. Mother Theresa just helped some downtrodden who didn't want to help themselves. This whole line of reasoning is so absurd it's hard to see where to begin. Another fallacy that Stossel argues is that the implosion of Enron proves that unfettered markets work. Bad companies die. This seems to be the common assumption that the media makes - that the creative destruction of capitalism is always good. Please then sit down and tell this to the Enron employees who lost their jobs and 401ks, investors who lost their money based on wrong and misleading information, California taxpayers who are still paying off tons of bilked money with regard to manipulated energy prices and the average taxpayer (who Stossel supposedly writes for) who is paying the cost of the trials of these rich-trash miscreants. Arm-chair quaterbacking that one sure is fun, when you don't feel the pain, isn't it John. This was totally preventable, if the government had regulated the accounting industry properly. A minority report is baseless without context. Just because there is a problem with the execution of government programs or regulations it does not necessarily follow that these should be abolished, as he argues. To do so, with such haste, time and time again, as he does, simply proves his incompetence. To contend that class-action lawsuits, environmental regulation, government welfare and entitlement programs, work-place conduct regulation, etc are not only unnecessary, but wholly undermine the system and populace that created them completely ignores history. There are so many instances of these regulatory and assistance programs working and making life better, you'd have to be blind not to see them - Child labor laws, unemployment insurance, sanitation laws, antitrust laws, maternity leave, the clean air and water acts, Head Start, public transportation, insider trading laws, the speed limit, the interstate highway system, the list goes on and on. I would like to see the private sector, that Stossel completeley idealizes and deifies, have had the guts to take those on alone. We would still be waiting for them to happen. There are occasional good tidbits, like the piece about "scaring ourselves to death", but they are too few and far between. Stossel's exception proves the rule song and dance just doesn't cut it.
Rating:
Summary: Give me a break, John!
Review: Conservative talking head for 20/20, Mr. Stossel considers himself considers himself the preeminent exposer of [liberal] lies, myths and stupidities. But consider this.
In his recent show on 20/20, in which he supposedly exposed 10 myths ["of the liberal media" was added in the credits at the end of the show, but his bias was obvious throughtout], Stossel mouths the usual complaints about the supposed liberal media. For instance, that the air is dirty. Stossel points out that the air is actually cleaner than it was 20 years ago. True, but has he been to L.A. recently? A blanket of smog still hangs there. And who has led the fight to clean it up? Liberals, the EPA, have forced business, the car companies to clean up their act. The same goes for cleaner water. We can thank government regulation of industry for that. His contention that gun control laws don't work and that if we all had guns we would be safer, flies in the face of common sense and is contrary to many, many studies. Interviewing Al Sharpton on his "The Rich Don't Pay their Fair Share of Taxes" segment, he insisted that the top 1 percent pay a marginal tax rate of 34% (yes, it's called a progressive tax). Of course, after loopholes, deductions, etc., that most of us don't have, they pay far less than that. Oh, and landfills. Stossel took a load off my mind by telling me that there remains plenty of room for our garbage. Enough for the next two thousand years. (What was the point of this? To deter us from recycling? It's OK to trash our planet? Anyhow, 2000 years is NOT a long time, John, in the grand scheme of things.)
In sum, Stossel wants us to swallow his arguments whole, without thinking about them. However, they are as full of holes as the swiss chese on my sandwich. Mostly, he relied on the worst kind of evidence--anecdotal. Caveat emptor!!!!
The segments on how we get colds and DDT and malaria were good and informative. The rest, conservative nonsense.
Rating:
Summary: This is a great book!
Review: It's about time someone in the media told us the truth about politics, self-serving lawyers, harmful government entitlement programs, big government waste and the far left. The premise behind GIVE ME A BREAK, John Stossel's new book, is that big government causes big problems, even the best intended federal legislation usually ends up doing more harm than good. He says that profit is not a bad word. Profit drives business which creates jobs, which creates wealth, which creats more jobs. The free enterprise system,or capitalism, made America strong. Now it is under attack from the far left. He believes free enterprise can cure most of the ills now facing this country if given the chance. Stossel blames the liberal news media for spreading unfounded rumors, half-truths and down right lies. He says that lawyers now make the laws of our land through class action lawsuits. He supports "loser pays" tort reform. Stossel blames politicians in all parties for being short-sighted, being easily influenced by special interest groups, and being unwilling to give up even a little of their power for the common good. GIVE ME A BREAK is well written and a quick read. I finished it in one setting. But, more than that it is insightful and thought provoking. Stossel has done his homework. He backs up what he says with interesting anecdotes and easily verifiable facts. I hope that Stossel makes a million bucks from this book.
|
