Millions of Americans think the nation is going wrong and don’t know why. They can find out from my book, “American Governments are Too Big and Too Powerful,” to be published by Defiance Press & Publishing.
My pie-in-the-sky goal is to influence public policy for the better. This will require the sale of many books. I am raising considerable funds mostly to finance the book’s publicity.
There are too many government policies, too many laws, too much use of force. In combination, they do more harm than good. Society is most content in the long run only if government is held to a minimum. The bigger the government, the more dysfunctional the nation becomes.
The U.S. Constitution specifies polices the federal government is permitted to do, but no others. Big-government advocates, however, have latched onto two words in the Constitution: “general welfare.” They think those words authorize them to do anything they darn well please. If the two words were removed, most of what the monstrous federal government is doing would become unconstitutional. Not a bad idea. Let’s try it.
In the early 1970s, one of the Boston stations had a fine afternoon talk show host. I called him on the same day every week, always at the same time in the afternoon, and talked about money matters and economics. On one of his calls, the host said, “Wait a minute. I received a letter about you.” He found the letter and read it on the air. It was from a student who wrote “Archie’s explanations of economics are clearer than those of my Harvard professors.”
For seven years, I wrote a weekly column, “Richards on Money Matters,” for some eleven papers. My best readership was Amarillo, TX. Second best, Waterbury, CT.
One of my columns described what I considered the best way to invest in stocks. (The suggestion is in the book.) Many years later, a reader of the Amarillo paper found my email address. He wrote that he’d invested half his money as I had suggested. The other half he gave to a professional investment advisor. My half had performed the better of the two.
The Waterbury editors surveyed their readers and were surprised to learn that they liked my column best, even though it was on the business page, not the editorial page. Some years later, I met the widow of a reader of the Waterbury paper.She told me, “On the mornings your column was published, my husband would hurry out to the mailbox to get the paper. He loved your columns, and he loved your judgment.”
I’m no chicken, but I’m in good shape and take no drugs. I do at least 40 consecutive pushups and other demanding exercises almost every day. Not many people of any age can do that. When the time comes for book signings and amusing speeches, I’ll be ready and able.
(Some of the information in this website, including the next paragraph, repeats what’s in a fund-raising flyer you may have received. But the info is included here anyway, since some people may read this without having received a flyer.)
Questions answered in the Book:
What are 24 well-known government policies that make life harder and more expensive, especially for the poor?
What would reduce the desire of legislators to hand out government benefits?
How can the federal debt crisis be resolved with minimum stress?
How can peace be realistically advanced?
How can welfare payments not create poverty?
How can the nation’s healthcare costs be reduced?
How can inflation be done away with permanently?
What species, known worldwide, is in danger of extinction?
How can funding for the police be reduced, but crime also diminished?
What U.S. city is surrounded by 5 of 7 of the nation’s wealthiest zip codes?
A person might respond, “Come on, man, how can one guy have the answers to all those problems?” Here’s how: Recommendations are better if one assumes that government, with few exceptions, stays out of it. (The book gives the exceptions.)
Big government and high tax rates have enabled ever more wealth to flow through government. Surprise, surprise, the gap between rich and poor has not diminished. It has grown wider. The book explains this unintended result.
Emissions of carbon dioxide began increasing significantly around World War II. Did the temperatures and ocean levels increase their growth rates then as well? Find out in the book.
Newspaper headlines read, “Rising Housing Costs Drive Up Inflation.” Is this true? Do rising housing costs truly increase the prices of everything in the entire economy? If housing doesn’t do it, what does?
The Federal Reserve Bank was created to reduce the volatility of the economy. It failed miserably. What to do about it?
Who was the ultimate killer of George Floyd?
When tax rates are reduced, government’s tax revenues go down, right?
Two errors by the German government in the 1920s and an error by an American president in 1930 led to World War II in Europe. What were the errors?
Around 1900, when U.S. governments were much smaller, charity directories in the big cities took as many as 100 pages to describe voluntary agencies that dealt with every imaginable emergency. If government were reduced now, non-government welfare agencies would again spring to life.
In the long run, liberalism is unsustainable and cannot help but fail, for two reasons:
1. Government solutions bring higher government costs and more use of force. These cause societal dysfunction. Government then designs solutions for that dysfunction. Those solutions in turn create more dysfunction.
2. In trying to make government bigger, liberals find more and more needs to fill. But government’s growth quenches the creation of wealth and makes other peoples’ money less available. Liberalism thus creates ever more needs but suppresses the availability of money to deal with them.
Government consumes wealth, creates no wealth, and inhibits the creation of wealth by others. If it were greatly diminished, the income of most people would rise and the gap between rich and poor would narrow.
It is time to place individual liberty at the forefront of our lives.
Email me your questions. I’ll email you the manuscript if you like. It’s only 58 pages and very readable. The book should be out in April 2024. Inform as many people as you can about Archie Richards.com. Don’t try to print the website, however, because the blue background will consume too much toner.
Click Donate Now below to contribute to a better America. I will keep the donors informed. Thank you so much.
Archie Richards
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