Bert Mclachlan

We're Crazy!: a Memoir About U.s. Values Bert Mclachlan

Publisher Marketing: This is a guidebook for our children and grandchildren, to make sure they understand the mess the seniors are leaving them, and what they will need to do about it! They inherit the confusion of a struggle of values. So this is a low-tuition course on "What's Important?," from the curriculum of The School of Hard Knocks, from one senior citizen who wants us all to keep thinking about our own values. Values...about religion versus morality, about businesses as financial parents, in a world weakened by the total fiscal irresponsibility of Keynesian economics and central banks, during our nation's misguided escape from the discipline of personal and family responsibility, and with a lost understanding of the vision our libertarian Founding Fathers had of the necessity of protecting the rights of the individual, as we wandered for the last century into the authoritarianism and centralized government of the mistakenly-named "progressives." Getting back on track is going to require clearer thinking about values than their parents have had. Some of the many questions addressed in depth by "WE'RE CRAZY!" are: "Universal human values"? So who is "entitled" to what? Own gold? This time Is different? Deficits don't matter? Cholesterol under 200 is OK? Learning Chinese? The End of Empire? The West will soon be only 1/7 of the world's population? 41% of us born out of wedlock? Who is this "somebody else" who is supposed to pay for everything? Religion versus Morality? A worshipful attitude is not good? What is "love"? Multiculturalism? "Commanders vs. Teachers"? How to really listen? Can you really help anybody? What good is democracy for poor people? End the Fed? The media get us into wars? "Nation building" in Vietnam, Iraq, or Afghanistan? Or anywhere? What should we (or should we not) do in Syria? North Korea? Iran? To the Palestinians? Our bankrupt "Social Security," Medicare, and Medicaid, and political cowardice? What was once our "dollar" is now worth 5 cents? And it's getting worse? We are in a "recovery"? What is the Rule of 72 and how does it apply? Premarital sex? Which economists and financiers have the best understanding of "the big picture"? Are our big problems domestic or foreign? Our federal government solves problems? Businesses paying for employee medical costs and ex-employees' retirements? Financially "characterizing" your own business? Exercising to lose weight? How much has Congress been spending for every $1.00 of its income? What's the trend? See the numbers yourself. The "trust fund"? The 10th Amendment? The U. S. is broke? Why does Article 1, Section 8 of our Constitution matter? Also included is a bibliography for great additional reading. Why compare your own answers with those in the book? Because the future depends on our values about these very subjects.