"The Price of Civilization"

Thad G., a high school classmate from our days in Wichita, KS, recommended a book to me, The Price of Civilization - Reawakening American Virtue and Prosperity by economist, Jeffrey D. Sachs.  I reserved the book at the library and took ten days to read it.

In my opinion, Mr. Sachs did an outstanding job of describing what went wrong with America.  His suggestions for the changes that will be necessary to fix the mess are well thought out.

Here are three quotes from the book.

• In fiscal year 2011, the federal government covered around 39 percent of its spending, roughly $1.4 trillion of $3.6 trillion, by borrowing.  (p. 209)
• There is no way to increase the scale of government if the government remains as incompetent and corrupt as it is today. (p. 210)
• The quality of life is deteriorating because we refuse to pay for the public goods needed for civilized society. (p. 211)

I posted that I read the book to both, weRead and LibraryThing.

Mr. Dickie

17 January 2012