The Seventeen Solutions: Bold Ideas for Our American Future - Softcover

Nader, Ralph

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0062083538 ISBN 13: 9780062083531

Publisher: Harper Paperbacks, 2012

Synopsis

In 2007, Ralph Nader published "The Seventeen Traditions", a small-format, thoughtful survey of seventeen lessons in ethics and values he took away from his small-town Connecticut childhood. Now, five years later - in a much more desperate time - he returns to this bite-size, accessible format to offer seventeen ambitious but common-sense solutions to the nation's seemingly intractable economic and social problems. In "The Seventeen Solutions", Nader surveys the stark, concrete contrasts between the kind of society and economy America can and should have, and the way most people now have to live - and live without. In a hard-hitting introduction and seventeen tightly focused chapters, he chastises corporate America (of which the government is now essentially a subset) for the dispossession of the American people. His solutions include: Cracking Down on Corporate Crime; Getting Corporations Off Welfare; Requiring National Charters for Corporations; Fundamental Tax Reform; Reducing the Massive Military Budget; Innovative New Programs to Create Job Growth; Returning Control of the Public Forum to the People; Returning Control of Science and Academia to the People; Overthrowing the Hydrocarbon Empire; Ending the Commercialization of Childhood; Replacing Spectator Sports with Participatory Sports; Fostering Community Control of Health, Housing, Credit, and more; Rebooting Civic Education; Reforming the Criminal and Judicial Systems; Facilitating Large-Scale Recruitment into Civic Reform Groups; Promoting Organized Watchdog Groups Nationwide; Starting The Engine-Recruiting Wealthy; and Progressive Citizens to Make a Difference. In an age when the Occupy movement is raising consciousness about the inherent potential for excess and cruelty within the American economic system - yet still struggling to provide solutions - Ralph Nader's radical yet practical "Seventeen Solutions" offer fodder for debate, and important ideas designed to save the country before it's too late.

About this title

Review

It will be very good for the country if Nader’s revelations shock a new generation. This book is a subversive primer that should be read in every high school civics class. (William Greider, The Nation)

From the Back Cover

More than ever, America needs fresh ideas—and bold solutions. Now, Ralph Nader—perhaps our last great civic idealist—offers seventeen ideas to rescue our country from corruption, complacency, and corporate domination.

America is in crisis. After enduring two decade-long wars and a devastating financial meltdown, We the People have been abandoned by the leaders we elected to serve our interests. Now, in response to our desperate times, pioneering reformer Ralph Nader offers a new program of seventeen ambitious but common-sense solutions to our chronic economic and social problems. Among them:

Reforming the tax system

Making our communities more self-reliant

Reclaiming science and technology for the people

Protecting the family

Getting corporations off welfare

Creating national charters for corporations

Reducing our bloated military budget

Organizing congressional watchdog groups

Enlisting the enlightened super-rich

Nader offers a stark assessment of our shared straits, but his solutions constitute an eye-opening plan to save America—before it's too late.

About this edition

• Publisher: Harper Paperbacks
• Publication date: 2012
• ISBN 10: 0062083538
• ISBN 13: 9780062083531
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 384