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Title: The Two Percent Solution: Fixing America's Problems in Ways Liberals and Conservatives Can Love by Matthew Miller ISBN: 1-58648-158-4 Publisher: PublicAffairs Pub. Date: 02 September, 2003 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $26.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.85 (13 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Re-Opens the Door to a Bright Future for America
Comment:
This book is politically and economically *explosive*. It joins "The Radical Center" (Halstead & Lind) and "Cultural Creatives" (Ray & Anderson) as one of my "top three" in domestic US political economics, and it *also* joins "The Soul of Capitalism" (William Greider) and "Rogue Nation" (Clyde Prestowitz) is my "top three" for international political economics.
This is a cross-over, transformative book that should be meaningful to everyone in the world, but especially to those Americans who wish to break out of the vicious downward spiral caused by partisan politics and voodoo economics--by elected politicians corrupted by special interests and consistently selecting short-term fraudulent "solutions" at the expense of long-term *sustainable" solutions.
By "2% solution" the author means 2 cents of every dollar in the national budget, or roughly what we have already wasted or committed to waste on the misbegotten Iraq invasion and occupation. The author crafts a viable proposition for thinking really big and coming to grips, in time to avert the looming disaster of the baby boomer pensions and the collapse of health care and education, with the four biggest issues threatening the national security and prosperity of the United States of America: universal health care; equal education for all, a living wage for all, and sustainable reliable pensions for all.
He sums it up in a gripping fashion: if we don't fund smart well-educated kids across the entire country, then we will not have the productivity we need to expand our pension funds and care for the boomers when they hit retirement. Smart kids now, safe retirement for today's adults. Any questions?
He is candidly (but politely) blunt when he states, and then documents, that both the Republican and Democratic party leaders (less Howard Dean) are lying to us about the answers that are possible (Prologue, page xiii). His book is an earnest--and in my judgement, hugely successful--attempt to create what the author calls an "ideologically androgynous" agenda for achieving social and economic justice in America with a commitment of just two cents on the tax-revenue dollar.
On the issue of teaching, he documents the "teacher gap" as one of the primary reasons for varying levels of performance--a gap that is more important than genetics or environment, and that is also resolvable by sound educational policy and funding. He brutally undresses both the Bush Administration, which is leaving every child behind, and the Democrats, who are "more symbol than cure." Republican hypocrisy and Democratic timidity receive an equal thrashing.
On living wages, he documents the 25 million that are not covered; on pensions he documents the coming collapse of Social Security and other "off budget" and unprotected funds.
He provides four reasons why we have a dysfunctional debate (and one can surmise: why we need to change the Presidential election process in order to achieve truly open and substantive debates): 1) paralysis from political party parity; 2) old mind-sets and habits shared by *both* Republican and Democratic leaders (less Governor Dean); 3) the failure of the national press to be serious and critical and to contribute to the debates; and 4) the tyranny of charades funded by political contributions.
The book includes an excellent and understandable review of both economic and social justice theory. Of special interest is the author's discussion of the Rawls Rule for social justice, which is to imagine everyone in an "original position" behind a veil of ignorance where no one knows what their luck will be in the future--the design of the social safety net should provide for the amelioration of any injustice that might befall anyone, and a social promotion system that prevents wealth concentrations that are not beneficial to the larger society--to wit, we must "set some limits on the power of luck to deform human lives."
The author concludes the book by suggesting that the public is ready for a revolution in U.S. political economic affairs, and in so doing points out how ill-served the U.S. public is by surveys that confuse myopia with honesty--surveys that ask generic questions without revealing the scope of the problem (40 million affected, etc.) with the result that the public is not informed of the depth of the problem--or, as the author suggests--they would *want to do something about it."
This is a sensible, heartening book. It is a book that gives hope for the future and that displays a proper respect for the good intentions and ability to think of the average citizen. It is a book that, if adopted by any Presidential candidate--or by all of them--could radically alter the public debates that lie before the public in the period leading up to the 2004 election. Every American should read this book and the four books cited above. If Thomas Jefferson was correct when he said, "A Nation's best defense is an educated citizenry," then Matthew Miller just became the first tutor to the new Nation.
Rating: 4
Summary: Sensible and Perhaps Do-Able but Probably Unlikely
Comment: The title is explained by Miller's bold assertion that the most serious challenges in the United States could be solved if the federal government spent only 2% more than it does now. These challenges include providing health care for those unable to afford it, attracting the best teaching talent to the weakest schools, establishing a "universal" living wage, and reforming campaign financing. In 2004, the gross domestic product will be approximately $11-trillion. Based on that, a 2% increase would be $220-billion.
Immediately I have questions. Has Miller taken in full account that as much as 85% (if not more) of an annual federal budget is already committed by law to programs such as Social Security and Medicare? Even if the Congress and the President were in agreement about the 2% tax increase and dedicated expenditures Miller proposes, would -- indeed could -- they make them? Even then, where would the (no pun intended) proverbial "buck" stop in terms of ensuring that the increased expenditures achieve the intended objectives? Finally, given the well-established infrastructures of government at the federal, state, and local levels, will an increase (in whatever amount) in a single year be sufficient to solve problems which have developed during the last (let's say) 50 years?
No reasonable person can quarrel with Miller's assertion that such problems exist, and, that public officials need to collaborate much more effectively on solving them. I agree with Miller that "our two major political parties are organized around ideologies and interest groups that systematically ban the expression of common-sense ideas that blend the best of liberal and conservative thinking." Perhaps there is a consensus in 2004 on what the most serious problems are. Historically, however, there has always been disagreement as to HOW to solve such problems and my guess (only a guess) is that political divisions are wider and deeper now than they have been at least since the 1930s and perhaps since the Civil War.
For me, this book's greatest value is best measured in terms of the controversies and conversations it stimulates. Miller does not have all the right answers...and doesn't claim to. No one does. In fact, he doesn't ask all the right questions. However, he offers a series of quite specific proposals and then supports them. If you disagree, as many do, Amazon offers this opportunity to respond and I am grateful for it.
Rating: 1
Summary: A fiscal utopia .
Comment: Mr. Miller is very creative, innovative, and what have you. But, he is totally unrealistic. His book is just an interesting utopia of what we could do with our money if it grew on trees, and if political considerations were irrelevant.
The truth of the matter is that we have a structural Budget Deficit of 5% of GDP. In other words, day in day out our Federal government expenditures exceed our Federal tax receipts by 5% of GDP (about 21% to 16% respectively). In Miller's utopic language, we would call this the 5% Problem, or the 5 pennies on the Dollar problem.
Additionally, if we look at the Federal Government as an insurance company offering retirement annuity policies (Social Security) and health care insurance policies (Medicare, and Medicaid) for which it charges a premium (payroll taxes); the Federal Government is deemed insolvent. The net present value of the cost of those policies exceeds the premiums received by $72 trillion. This stresses that we actually have far more than a 5% Problem (in Miller's language) when we consider our tsunami of unfunded liabilities.
To resolve our fiscal crisis, we should think like libertarians on the expense side (cut the cost of government programs, restructure Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid) and think like socialists on the revenues side (increase taxation to near European style levels). Miller does the reverse (think like a socialist on the expense side and like a libertarian on the tax side). Thus, none of the ideas he comes up with pay for themselves. Instead, they would dig us deeper in the hole.
Also, Miller's creative "grand bargains" amount to various voucher schemes to ultimately insure more people, increase the pay of teachers, and other most laudable social goals. Unfortunately, most of these "grand bargains" have already proven to be political nonstarters. School vouchers have already been turned down many times by voters at the State level.
If you want to read good books on the future outlook of the U.S. better grounded in reality, I recommend: Laurence Kotlikoff's "The Coming Generational Storm" that describes the impact of our aging society on our fiscal position. I also strongly recommend two excellent books by Robert Stowe England: "The Fiscal Challenge of an Aging Industrial World" and "Global Aging and Financial Markets." These books make extensive comparison between the U.S. and other developed countries' fiscal position. Also, Paul Krugman's "The Great Unraveling" covers well our deteriorating fiscal position.
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Title: The Great Unraveling: Losing Our Way in the New Century by Paul Krugman ISBN: 0393058506 Publisher: W.W. Norton & Company Pub. Date: September, 2003 List Price(USD): $25.95 |
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Title: Perfectly Legal: The Covert Campaign to Rig Our Tax System to Benefit the Super Rich - and Cheat Everybody Else by David Cay Johnston ISBN: 1591840198 Publisher: Portfolio Pub. Date: 25 December, 2003 List Price(USD): $25.95 |
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Title: The Soul of Capitalism: Opening Paths to a Moral Economy by William Greider ISBN: 0684862190 Publisher: Simon & Schuster Pub. Date: 01 September, 2003 List Price(USD): $28.00 |
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Title: The Two Americas : Our Current Political Deadlock and How to Break It by Stanley B. Greenberg ISBN: 0312318383 Publisher: Thomas Dunne Books Pub. Date: 08 January, 2004 List Price(USD): $25.95 |
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Title: The Radical Center : The Future of American Politics by Michael Lind, Ted Halsted ISBN: 0385720297 Publisher: Anchor Pub. Date: 08 October, 2002 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
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