This weeks entry marks the end of our reading of New Deal or Raw Deal by Burt Folsom, Jr. I felt like this book was very timely and had many points we should consider today. I had read about FDR before, and had a pretty low opinion of him. However, this book lowered that opinion further still. I get the feeling FDR was primarily concerned | Read More »
This weeks post is going to be short and sweet. With our current recession showing more negative signs each week, I thought Chapter 15 had some useful advice for today’s leaders. In this chapter, Mr. Folsom looks at some of the things FDR should have done to get the United States out of the Great Depression. Two of those things stand out above the rest | Read More »
I thought chapter 14 of this weeks reading was very interesting. In it, Mr. Folsom chronicles many of the lies FDR told to the public and to members of his own party while in office. FDR was guilty of using the same lies that we hear politicians use today. For example, in 1932, Roosevelt promised to balance the budget. He even made balancing the budget | Read More »
I am going to spend some time on my soap box this week. I have always been against the minimum wage law, and this weeks reading has only reinforced that. This weeks reading of New Deal or Raw Deal? included a discussion of FDR’s push for a minimum wage. FDR citied the need for the poor to have more money. If businesses were required to | Read More »
I would normally post my thoughts here on the recent readings in New Deal or Raw Deal by Folsom. However, I haven’t finished this weeks reading so I am going to put this off until next Sunday. If you were better than me and finished the reading, feel free to post your comments here. On a different note, this is going to be the last | Read More »
I thought this weeks reading serves as a very good warning to the dangers of the federal government getting involved in charities. Mr. Folsom was looking back at the New Deal, but I believe we could apply lessons form the New Deal to today’s debate on federal spending. First, federal charity retards private charity. If individuals are taxed so that the federal government can provide | Read More »
I continue to be amazed at the number of parallels between the FDR administration and the Obama administration. There were two important ones from this weeks reading that I wanted to spend time covering. Causes of the Great Depression During the 1930′s and into today capitalism is often pointed out as the reason for the Great Depression. FDR campaigned saying that the rich were getting | Read More »
This is the first entry for our new book in the Book Notes section of Red State. I decided to go with New Deal or Raw Deal: How FDR’s Economic Legacy has Damaged America by Burton Folsom, Jr. because it seems very relevant for today. President Obama came into office on a spending spree. The Democratic controlled Congress and Senate showed no desire to reign | Read More »
Conscience of a Conservative by Barry Goldwater turned out to be a very good book wrapped in a small package. Many of the sections touched on some of the themes we have seen through out the Book Notes reading. Others brought new ideas out. The section on foreign aid has me reconsidering my entire position on foreign aid. It never dawned on me (though it | Read More »
I continue to be amazed at how much relevance the books from this project have in today’s world. Free to Choose was written in the 1970′s. Yet much the book, and much of what we have covered here, could easily apply to today. One of the interesting points in this last section was the inclusion of the Socialist Party Platform of 1928. The Milton’s write | Read More »
![[RS]](/t/img/logo-footer.jpg){kind=logo}