Size Matters : How Big Government Puts the Squeeze on America's Families, Finances, and Freedom (and Limits the Pursuit of Happiness)

by Miller, Joel

• ISBN13: 9781595550378
• ISBN10: 1595550372
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2006-01-30
• Publisher: Harpercollins Christian Pub

Summary

Your right to pursue happiness has been revoked by Big Government. #xD;#xD;Thousands of pages of regulations, millions of employees, and trillions of tax dollars . . . Big Government is bigger than ever, and as this bloated behemoth continues to fatten up and stretch out, it squeezes America's entrepreneurs, workers, and families - cutting our choices, limiting our opportunities, and squelching our right to pursue happiness. #xD;#xD;Every year, taxes increase, regulations pile higher, the cost of living goes up - and our quality of life suffers. So with everyone obsessing about the obesity problem in America, isn't it time we looked at the fat, flabby, overstretched, and overbloated behemoth that is American government? #xD;#xD; Size Matters shows through facts, figures, and head-spinning stories that as government increases in quantity , we all suffer a loss in life quality . Miller reveals the damning details of Big Government's impact on the lives of ordinary Americans. How it . . . #xD;#xD; #xD; reduces family income #xD; drives up the cost of housing, healthcare, and most every other consumer product or service #xD; hurts employment #xD; misdirects entrepreneurial efforts #xD; stifles vital marketplace creativity and innovation #xD;#xD;Bristling with drama and data, Size Matters reveals the real daily drawbacks of Big Government. It comes down to this . . . #xD;#xD; Big Government = Huge Problem. Size really does matter . #xD;#xD; "Miller explains how government overregulation and porkbarrelling are costing Americans money and freedom while politicians and special interests line their pockets. This book should be a political call to arms." #xD; -Glenn Reynolds, Instapundit.com; author of An Army of Davids #xD;#xD; "Great sport! Imagine Thomas Frank if he actually told the truth. Accessible, entertaining, informative, and relevant in the best sense of the word. Read this book and you'll never lose an argument to a liberal again." #xD; -Jack Cashill, author of Hoodwinked and Sucker Punch #xD;#xD; "Miller will make you excited about the potential of America-and spitting mad that Big Government keeps tripping us up." #xD; -Star Parker, author of Uncle Sam's Plantation #xD;#xD; "Who knew that reading about rapacious government growth could be so delectable?" #xD; -Nick Gillespie, editor-in-chief, Reason

Table of Contents

Part I Introduces the major themes of the book: Big Government, the pursuit of happiness, the rule of law, and the French-frying of America
Of Beer and Bureaucrats	3	(3)
Pursuing Happiness	6	(5)
Road Signs and Guillotines	11	(5)
French-Frying America	16	(7)
Part II Explains the roles of special interests, lobbyists, politicians, and bureaucrats in growing the size of government. Also gives preliminary consideration to how this affects the pursuit of happiness
Growth Enterprise	23	(3)
Bigger Than Planned	26	(3)
The Age of Excess	29	(5)
Backroom Deals and Bearnaise Sauce	34	(4)
All Politics Is Product	38	(5)
Misadventures in Reinventing Government	43	(7)
Boom Years	50	(6)
Cinderella and the Fame Sluts	56	(4)
The Ambitions of Wonks and Hacks	60	(5)
Subletting Government	65	(7)
Calhoun's Conundrum	72	(5)
Part III Explores the many ways Big Government hampers commerce, stifles creativity, and blocks innovation, while also jacking up the cost of living
Of Bubbles and Bungalows	77	(8)
Seeing Things	85	(5)
Enterprise in the Gas Chamber	90	(4)
Mr. Bureaucrat, Call Your Office	94	(5)
Bureaucratic Crib Death	99	(5)
Side Order of Stifling Regulations, Please	104	(5)
More Boot Than Bootstrap	109	(8)
Beast of Burdens	117	(8)
Bringing Down the Law	125	(6)
Do Not Pass Go	131	(5)
What's Right with Kansas	136	(8)
Calcifying the American Dream	144	(7)
Part IV Examines how proponents of Big Government push policies that limit individual choice in the name of the public happiness and end up encumbering government with too many tasks and individuals with too few opportunities
Discount-Rack Happiness	151	(6)
A Softer Sort of Ham Fist	157	(3)
Pension for Folly	160	(8)
Pro-Choice	168	(5)
The Tyranny of Jam	173	(8)
Public Disservices	181	(8)
Think Small	189	(7)
Final Thoughts about Losing Weight	196	(5)
My Thanks	201	(1)
Bibliography	202	(3)
Notes	205	(22)
Index	227