PLUNDER AND DECEIT: BIG GOVERNMENT’S EXPLOITATION OF YOUNG PEOPLE AND THE FUTURE, by Mark R. Levin

A Brief Book Summary from Books At a Glance

About the Author

Mark Levin has a J.D. from Temple University Law School, is a nationally syndicated talk-radio host, is president of Landmark Legal Foundation, and is the author of New York Times bestsellers Liberty and Tyranny, Ameritopia, and The Liberty Amendment.

Introduction

America’s big government is selling out our younger generations with their fiscal and legal policies that benefit today’s citizens but will cost future generations dearly. Levin surveys various important issues that need to be addressed today and suggests ways to solve them to safeguard our future’s well-being.

Table of Contents

Chapter One: Plunder and Deceit
Chapter Two: On the Debt
Chapter Three: On Social Security
Chapter Four: On Medicare and Obamacare
Chapter Five: On Education
Chapter Six: On Immigration
Chapter Seven: On the Environment
Chapter Eight: On the Minimum Wage
Chapter Nine: On National Security
Chapter Ten: On the Constitution
Epilogue: A New Civil Rights Movement

 

Summary
Chapter One
Plunder and Deceit

Many Americans today have good intentions. Indeed, many of our leaders have good intentions. Parents want their children to have a good future. But decisions often have unintended consequences. In civil society as well, there are often unintended consequences of our decisions for future generations. Edmund Burke, an eighteenth century English political thinker, warned about forsaking this “intergenerational continuum” and thereby condemning themselves and their children to a grim existence. We have a moral duty to ensure the wellbeing of our children.

In America today, civil society has been unraveling and, although subtly persistent, it has been intensifying. The aim of this book is to demonstrate that “the ruling generation’s governing policies are already forecast to diminish the quality of life of future generations…. If not appropriately and expeditiously ameliorated, the effects will be dire. And the ruling generation knows it” (5).

Americans in polls have been registering their concern for future generations. Politicians know this problem exists. But many of them have become beneficiaries of and reliant on economically unsustainable governmental schemes, which guarantee their livelihood and retirement. Ultimately, parents and politicians must take moral responsibility for the future and we must hold politicians accountable for looking out for the interest of civil society rather than themselves. The younger generation must avoid tendencies toward idealism, which certain politicians prey on to advance unsustainable policies with a utopian vision. The younger generation…

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