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Generation Screwed
In Canada, our government funding requires robbing Peter to pay Paul. But what happens when Peter retires?
This question is examined by author Candice Malcolm, who discusses the many problems facing young Canadians. Thanks to the big promises made by politicians over time, our government lives beyond its means, doesn't pay its bills and forces young workers to pay for the lucrative benefits of older workers -- benefits that won't exist for the next generation.
Generation Screwed is the manifesto that teaches young Canadians how to fight back against the Ponzi schemes set up by their government.
This question is examined by author Candice Malcolm, who discusses the many problems facing young Canadians. Thanks to the big promises made by politicians over time, our government lives beyond its means, doesn't pay its bills and forces young workers to pay for the lucrative benefits of older workers -- benefits that won't exist for the next generation.
Generation Screwed is the manifesto that teaches young Canadians how to fight back against the Ponzi schemes set up by their government.
221 pages, Kindle Edition
First published October 19, 2014
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
August 27, 2015
To begin - if you have to have your book self-published by a vanity press no one's ever heard of (and that isn't even in the country where you live) there's a good chance that you're NOT a misunderstood political visionary, but instead a fringe radical with weak ideas.
At least Malcolm is honest in her opening; this is a manifesto more than a serious political discussion or thought piece. Throughout the book, she makes many grand, sweeping, hilarious statements such as: "Now you are an addict. Addicted to big government." and, "Capitalism and free markets have done more to help the poor and vulnerable than any other force in human history." LOLS
Many of her ideas are contradictory (for example with regards to CPP), and demonstrate a lack of understanding of class, capital, power, democracy, citizenship, and the logical extension of many libertarian ideals. Her "facts" are also poorly researched and largely hyperbole, and left me noting into the margins: "citation needed" every few pages.
I also found this book to be inherently negative all the way through the end. Malcolm spends a lot of time denigrating government and democracy without ultimately proposing many actual solutions in the end. The solutions she offers are very simple answers to complex problems (if you actually agree that the things she names are problems).
Her answers (treat government like a business, public service attrition, demolish public pensions/healthcare/EI and "take the money back", give politicians "an allowance", expose "the truth" about big government) are all dealt with over the course of a few pages at the end of the book, and include no practical application of these "solutions". The only reason I even gave this book one star is because she dedicates a single paragraph to the idea of an "intergenerational watchdog" which I think is an interesting concept.
In the end, nothing in this book is of help to a generation that is, in fact, facing challenging times. I actually find it a little insulting to our intelligence.
All in all, there's a few hours of my life I will never get back, and I suggest that you (dear reader) don't waste your precious time.
At least Malcolm is honest in her opening; this is a manifesto more than a serious political discussion or thought piece. Throughout the book, she makes many grand, sweeping, hilarious statements such as: "Now you are an addict. Addicted to big government." and, "Capitalism and free markets have done more to help the poor and vulnerable than any other force in human history." LOLS
Many of her ideas are contradictory (for example with regards to CPP), and demonstrate a lack of understanding of class, capital, power, democracy, citizenship, and the logical extension of many libertarian ideals. Her "facts" are also poorly researched and largely hyperbole, and left me noting into the margins: "citation needed" every few pages.
I also found this book to be inherently negative all the way through the end. Malcolm spends a lot of time denigrating government and democracy without ultimately proposing many actual solutions in the end. The solutions she offers are very simple answers to complex problems (if you actually agree that the things she names are problems).
Her answers (treat government like a business, public service attrition, demolish public pensions/healthcare/EI and "take the money back", give politicians "an allowance", expose "the truth" about big government) are all dealt with over the course of a few pages at the end of the book, and include no practical application of these "solutions". The only reason I even gave this book one star is because she dedicates a single paragraph to the idea of an "intergenerational watchdog" which I think is an interesting concept.
In the end, nothing in this book is of help to a generation that is, in fact, facing challenging times. I actually find it a little insulting to our intelligence.
All in all, there's a few hours of my life I will never get back, and I suggest that you (dear reader) don't waste your precious time.
July 23, 2016
I found this book very interesting and it shows some great insight into the economic burden of what liberals and their big government ideology is placing upon the next generations shoulders..
If I wanted to summary this book and what the author is trying to say in just a few words I would say: Some day someone is going to have to pay the $19.3 trillion US debt and it clearly isn't going to be the current generation of policy makers...
If I wanted to summary this book and what the author is trying to say in just a few words I would say: Some day someone is going to have to pay the $19.3 trillion US debt and it clearly isn't going to be the current generation of policy makers...
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews