6,264 books
—
8,078 voters
Johnny Le Bon
https://www.goodreads.com/bookwormfjl
“The choice is not, Reich argues, between a governed and an ungoverned market, but between a market governed by laws favoring monopolistic companies and one governed by those favoring small business.”
― Strangers in Their Own Land: Anger and Mourning on the American Right
― Strangers in Their Own Land: Anger and Mourning on the American Right
“The United States now ranks twentieth out of twenty-seven OECD nations in the share of young people expected to finish high school.50”
― American Amnesia: How the War on Government Led Us to Forget What Made America Prosper
― American Amnesia: How the War on Government Led Us to Forget What Made America Prosper
“Libraries are safe but also exciting. Libraries are where nerds like me go to refuel. They are safe-havens where the polluted noise of the outside world, with all the bullies and bro-dudes and anti-feminist rhetoric, is shut out. Libraries have zero tolerance for bullshit. Their walls protect us and keep us safe from all the bastards that have never read a book for fun.”
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“Ninety percent of all problems are caused by people being assholes.”
“What causes the other ten percent?” asked Kizzy.
“Natural disasters,” said Nib.”
― The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet
“What causes the other ten percent?” asked Kizzy.
“Natural disasters,” said Nib.”
― The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet
“Today the message most commentators take from Adam Smith is that government should get out of the way. But that was not Smith’s message. He was enthusiastic about government regulation so long as it wasn’t simply a ruse to advantage one set of commercial interests over another. When “regulation . . . is in favor of the workmen,” he wrote in The Wealth of Nations, “it is always just and equitable.” He was equally enthusiastic about the taxes needed to fund effective governance. “Every tax,” he wrote, “is to the person who pays it a badge, not of slavery but of liberty.”9 Contemporary libertarians who invoke Smith before decrying labor laws or comparing taxation to theft seem to have skipped these passages. Far from a tribune of unregulated markets, Smith was a celebrant of effective governance. His biggest concern about the state wasn’t that it would be overbearing but that it would be overly beholden to narrow private interests. His greatest ire was reserved not for public officials but for powerful merchants who combined to rig public policies and repress private wages. These “tribes of monopoly” he compared with an “overgrown standing army” that had “become formidable to the government, and upon many occasions intimidate the legislature.” Too often, Smith maintained, concentrated economic power skewed the crafting of government policy. “Whenever the legislature attempts to regulate the differences between masters and their workmen,” he complained, “its counsellors are always the masters. . . . They are silent with regard to the pernicious effects of their own gains. They complain only of those of other people.”10”
― American Amnesia: How the War on Government Led Us to Forget What Made America Prosper
― American Amnesia: How the War on Government Led Us to Forget What Made America Prosper
SciFi and Fantasy eBook Club
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— last activity Apr 21, 2026 10:15AM
This is for those of us whose preferred format is the ebook ... So, Whether you're a Kindle, Nook, Sony, iPad, Google, or whatever person; come on in ...more
The History Book Club
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— last activity 12 hours, 52 min ago
"Interested in history - then you have found the right group". The History Book Club is the largest history and nonfiction group on Goodread ...more
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