The Good Life and its Discontents

Author: Robert J. Samuelson
List Price: $25.00
Our Price: Click to see the latest and low price
ISBN: 0812925920
Publisher: Times Books (26 December, 1995)
Sales Rank: 357,432
Average Customer Rating: 4.25 out of 5

Customer Reviews

Rating: 1 out of 5
A Not Very Subtle Conservative Manifesto!
If you are a conservative, you will enjoy this book. Samuelson truly believes in the system!

If Samuelson spoke with Chomsky:

Samuelson: I'm sick of hearing that there are ghettos; I'm tired of listening to people whine about how Washington is a function of corporate interests; stop crying about how the government has systematically squashed the interests of Labor. Things are not perfect and people should stop demanding a free lunch.

Chomsky: What about health care? Do you realize we are the richest Country in the World, yet we are one of the only progessive "Democratic" states that doesn't provide some basic level of care to all citizens.

Samuelson: If poor people want health care, than they should get jobs dammit! They are not entitled to a free lunch. No free lunch! No free lunch!...

Chomsky: Isn't it true that you support a system that created NAFTA, which basically raises domestic unemployemnt, lowers wages and, yes, destroyes the very jobs you are telling poor people to get?

Samuelson: I said the system works, it's not perfect. No free lunch! No free lunch!

Chomsky: The system is filled with structural injustice: it fixes the betting in favor of corporations and against working Americans . . . and the best you can say is that it's not perfect. By the way, do you own stock in companies that routinely fire hard working Americans in order to raise profit and boost your portfolio.

Samuelson: Um, well, um. You see, well. The system works dammit! No free lunch! No free lunch!


Rating: 5 out of 5
A colorful analysis of American society
This was one of the most intelligent, original, and colorful books that I have read this year. Most of the author's points are right on the mark. The great mystery of our time for political analysts is the large gap between peoples' evident satisfaction with their own life and their overwhelming disappointment with public life. Mr. Samuelson not only is perceptive enough to point out this overlooked paradox but diagnoses it well. This will be certainly a bold challenge for the next generation of public leaders.


Rating: 5 out of 5
Excellent description of current situation
As someone who has to deal with many of the issues that Samuleson addresses, I can vouch for his central thesis that people have come to take progress for granted and have forgotten that there's "no such thing as a free lunch."



Book Index