Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

The latter two-thirds of this book is a breakdown of the Constitution, with each article followed by brief commentary that is not at all in-depth (disappointingly), and then an actual copy of the Constitution. You can save yourself the money this book costs by looking up the Constitution online and referencing your kid’s history textbook if you have any questions. In the opening third of “A More Perfect Union”, Dr. Ben Carson presents his conservative vision by making the usual conservative points and quoting Founding Fathers, while continually warning us about government tyranny. Indeed, at the time of the Constitution’s creation (1787), the only thing that could oppress people was government tyranny. Unfortunately, just like most Republican books, Carson fails to mention how, by the 1890s, the Constitution had largely failed Americans, and concerns of revolution abounded, due to something worse – corporate tyranny. Many Americans found that 100 hour work weeks (60 for the kids), rampant child labor, thousands of on the job deaths per year, unlivable wages, company-owned towns (where if you didn’t buy your supplies at the company store, you lost your home and your job), and destroyed environments were far more oppressive than a three pence tax on tea ever was. So “we the people” used our Democratic government to shed corporate tyranny and protect us from the harmful effects of corporate greed. This was called the Progressive Movement, and it was initially spearheaded by Christian preacher and three time Democratic presidential nominee, William Jennings Bryan. Republicans, being the party that has served the corporate wealthy since Teddy Roosevelt left office in 1909, have since used the rhetoric of government tyranny to convince people to vote to weaken the power of “we the people,” so corporate tyranny may return. Unlike William Jennings Bryan, Carson’s positions serve the interests of wealth rather than God (Jesus says you can’t serve both). Also, Carson once again proposes a FLAT TAX rather than our current progressive income tax. He says a “flat tax may be the only tax that truly treats everyone fairly...” But that’s untrue, since our corporate capitalist system is already unfair before any taxes are collected. A corporation is a legalized system of stealing in which the wealthy make millions when business is good, and then, when their risk-taking goes bust, they legally steal hundreds of billions of dollars from those they’re indebted to, by means of corporate bankruptcy. Without this system, they could never be so rich. For example, Trump’s last corporate bankruptcy cost the banks over 1 billion dollars of depositor money (even though Trump had the money to pay it). The banks make that up by charging us extra fees and higher credit card rates. America has been paying Trump’s debts! That’s why it’s morally imperative that the wealthy pay higher taxes. They force us to cover their debts; it’s only fair that we share in their gains. Ben Carson supports this system of the wealthy systematically stealing from society – something the Bible never permitted – while he condemns the haves being forced to share more with the have-nots – something the Bible created. Carson has stated elsewhere that a flat tax is righteous, because that’s how God did it in the Bible. This is also incorrect. What God really had in ancient Israel was a two-tiered tax, where only those who inherited land paid, while those who lacked land did not pay; they received. God understood that land provided a means of self-support. People could farm it and build houses and business on it. Those who had no means of self-support (widows, orphans, immigrants, and Levites) were fully dependent on landowners for survival, so God required landowners to share (if you don’t believe it was required, read Nehemiah 12:44 which says to bring in the tithes “REQUIRED by the Lord”). Since 12 of the 13 tribes of Israel inherited similar amounts of land, and less than 10% of the population did not, 10% tithes were all that was needed to meet the needs of the needy. Had only 50% of Israelites owned land, they likely would have had to pay 50% of their income to meet the needs of the 50% who lacked it. Had Ben Carson’s policies been in force in ancient Israel, they would have denied the widows, orphans and immigrants any receipt of tithes and forced them to pay tithes, despite having no means to do so. Today, most Americans go into the world with no means of self-support and are DEPENDENT on the wealthy for jobs and income (this is where DEPENDENCY comes from, not from welfare “handouts,” as Carson says). If there are 160 million workers and only 150 million jobs (which is consistent with the 5.8% average unemployment rate over the last 50 years), 10 million people have no choice but to be unemployed, because dependency on the wealthy has failed them. Ben Carson wants to take away their government assistance, forcing the unemployed to look harder for work, which doesn’t create any jobs, but does increase competition for jobs, which lowers wages. That’s exactly what Republicans (who exploit Americans for the sake of the corporate predators who control them) want, because lower wages make the rich richer, while most of the tax-savings from cutting assistance to the poor goes to the rich and the defense contractors (who see a big boost in tax-payer dollars funneled to them when Republicans take control). The only reason I give this book two stars instead of one is that it contains educational history about the creation of the Constitution. But this is insufficient. It’s like learning the coach’s game plan, but never watching the game to see what worked and what didn’t, and then using the same game plan over and over, despite its failings. Carson failed to cover America’s history after the game began and examine why we made the changes we did, thus making his book incomplete and relatively worthless.