Third World America: How our politicians are abandoning the average citizen

Absolutely!In her most recent and easy to read book, Arianna Huffington, co-founder of opinion maker Huffington Post and one of the most influential women of the USA, explores how inefficiently the governments in the USA are being run and how real is the threat that the USA can become a Third World country very soon. She attributes the current economic fiasco of the US simply to one aspect - successive US Governments being run under heavy influence of lobbies, financial and manufacturing cartels, special interest groups and the like.She goes on to show how President Obama gave in to the same groups and did not invest in improving the crumbling infrastructure, school system, and encouraging bringing new ideas to the land by immigrants. But she does not paint a gloom and doom scenario altogether. She gives many encouraging examples of individuals, small businesses, and niche corporate players who are improving the lives in the USA without any help from the government.So now I can defend my answer to the question I asked at the outset.If Canadian politicians become pawns in the hands of special interest groups, such as price gouging gas companies, and the Central Bank decides to increase interest rate at its whim at a time when most Canadians have just moved into their new homes or have started new businesses under the encouragement of the Federal and provincial governments, like it did last few times, then there is a possibility that average Canadians will be hit too badly to recover at all.

"No One is Lobbying for the American Dream" is a phrase that resonates in Arianna Huffington's powerful and provocative new book, Third World America: How Our Politicians Are Abandoning the Middle Class and Betraying the American Dream. Embedded in one of the most powerful chapters in this short, concise, and mighty wallop of a book, Huffington calls out the culture of corruption and greed that has taken over our government. Money from corporate lobbyists has filled the halls of Congress, influences vote, and despite public outrage over bank bailouts, BP oil rig disasters, and an economy still on shaky ground, real reform that would make a difference in the lives of the dwindling American Middle Class has no chance of succeeding. The facts are not new, and are not unknown, but terrifying none-the-less.Huffington's book is filled with stories of what Palin calls "real Americans", people who paid the price of becoming middle class by attending college, working hard, owning a home, and living comfortably. However, due to circumstances beyond their control, (having jobs shipped overseas, health crises, et. al), these people are living off retirement savings and credit cards, just to make ends meet. These aren't people living the high life off a government buck; these are our fellow citizens who played by the rules, but somewhere down the road, the rules changed to favor corporate profits beyond anything else, and when it comes time to pay the piper, the middle class gets stuck with the bill.This is one of the most accessible books on the current crisis. Huffington writes with such precision that her points and information resonates powerfully. This book could easily be read in one night. Warning: have post it notes, sticky arrows, or a notepad nearby. There are facts, phrases and statistics you are going to want to remember. My book is covered with them.Finishing the book, I wondered if anyone who has anything to do with this mess is going to listen? Is corporate money so pervasive in our system that it's made our policy makers, both Democratic and Republican, deaf to the concerns of the citizens they purport to represent? Are our children going to look at books such as this and Rebooting the American Dream: 11 Ways to Rebuild Our Country and ask why didn't people read and heed these lessons as we live in a truly corporate run America?This book should not only be read by everyone, but paid attention to. Huffington has sounded the alarm brilliantly, but will anyone listen?

As relevant to the US as it is to the UK, this is a book of shock statistics interwoven with personal stories of worsening times with worse to come. Despite the US perspective, Arianna covers issues affecting global societies, and many of the appalling stats and cries for action will seem familiar to British readers. It's not some uncorroborated list of facts and figures - references are given for all of the statistical claims given in the book, lending its argument a good deal of weight. Journalistic in style, it is fact-driven and punchy.Although you can tell what side of the political fence Arianna sits on, the book tries hard not to be partisan in any way, a welcome change from gloat-drive blame politics. Democrats and Republicans are singled out for praise and shame, and the book's underlying message is the need for cooperation beyond the party level.And it's not all doom and gloom - the fifth and final section of the book looks hopefully not only at national solutions to the problems, but also at what the individual can do. As well as practical measures such as making use of more localised credit unions instead of international banks, there's a well-needed call for greater empathy and community action. Peppered here and there with the usual raft of inspirational quotes, there is nonetheless a great practicality in Arianna's outline for kicking off reform.All in all an excellent addition to the growing literature on the series of crises hitting much of Western civilisation right now. A concise read that leaves you feeling both informed and empowered.

Well, damn she pretty much spells it all out: Failing schools, crumbling infrastructure, crooked politicians, glaring income inequality, and a near extinction of US manufacturing. America is still number one in a few things though. We leave China and Russia in the dust with the number of people incarcerated per capita. We should have the safest country in the world, with crime rates lower than a Singapore nunnery. Instead, our cities resemble those of some stateless banana republic. We're also number one in childhood obesity, hooray! And on top of this, childhood type-two diabetes. In other news, as of this writing, "medical errors" are the third leading cause of death in the United States next to heart disease and cancer. Government surveillance of our lives has dramatically increased, and yet murder and mass-shootings are skyrocketing. Like it says on the dust jacket she "names names" and gets into the trenches. However, this book is a bit dated because Arianna seems dreamy-eyed about Barack Obama's administration, as though he might still have a chance to turn things around. (I thought the Huffington Post was supposed to be a conservative news outlet, I'm confused?)Near the end she makes some good suggestions about how we could ALL make things better, and sit around a big campfire singing "Kumbaya " munching on spicy wing dings and drinking beer. But there's always that one guy who goes overboard on the booze and winds up taking a leak at the buffet table and causes an escalating series of events that ends with the police showing up and two people in the hospital with minor contusions. Judging from how things have gone the past few years it's hard to be optimistic. Sorry, I really wish there was a happy ending.In short: A very good read and highly recommended.

This book made me feel sad, but it is true. US is becoming a 3rd world country, mostly because of its increasing inequality, and the loss of revenue at federal, state and local governments due to corporate welfare. US' infrastructure is crumbling to the ground, the education system is a joke, no health care for the 50%..... US ranks last on most living standard indexes among industrial nations. The richest nation in the world has the poorest people among developed countries. It's a shame, and you can clearly blame it on the unholy alliance between big corporations and politicians that became very strong in the 70s and has doomed the US. CEO and Politicians, are becoming billionaires while the 99% gets down the toilet.