Economic Policies in the United States, U.S. Politics & Government - 20th Century, U.S. Politics & Government - 1992-2001, Liberalism & Conservatism, U.S. Politics - Public Affairs & Administration, U.S. Politics & Government - General & Miscellaneous, Th
Log in to track your reading progress.
Overview
As leader of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce for the past twenty years, Richard Lesher has seen the collapse of small business's faith in the government's ability to solve problems. In Meltdown on Main Street, he offers a stinging indictment of years of policy-making and argues for a continuing push toward the traditional values of self-reliance, individual responsibility, and personal initiative. Citing the examples of dozens of actual businesses that have been crippled or destroyed by ill-conceived, poorly designed laws, Lesher pleads the case for small business against big government with wit, wisdom, clarity, compassion, and above all, facts and figures. With an unerring eye for absurdity, Lesher presents copious examples of regulatory snafus and bureaucratic pettiness that represent the worst of governmental inefficiency. With small-business leaders forming the core support group for the revolution against big government, Meltdown on Main Street perfectly embodies their dissatisfaction with the status quo and their vision of what government can and should do.Editorials
Publishers Weekly -
This smoothly written book by the president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce outlines the case against big government that helped put Republicans in control of Congress in 1994. Comparing the surge of antigovernment sentiment to a political earthquake, Lesher argues that the mobilization of small businesses struggling to survive was the driving force in the shift to the right. Describing laws and regulations aimed at consumer and worker safety, environmental protection and amelioration of poverty as excessive, Lesher says they burden and overtax entrepreneurs and foster a culture of dependency and lawlessness among intended beneficiaries. Lesher concludes by calling for representatives of small businesses to help streamline government programs. Citing the collapse of the U.S.S.R., he believes that the free market has proven its supremacy. Would that he had paid more attention to America's increasing gap between rich and poor. (May)Library Journal
Lesher, the longtime president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, writes passionately about the widening gulf between the federal government and the small-business community. He believes the gulf yawned widest with the Clinton administration's proposal for health care reform and the perceived implications this would have for the private sector. What resulted was political activism on the part of many small businesspersons, which accounts, Lesher believes, for the election of a conservative, pro-business Congress in 1994. These newly elected officials have been seeking to right many of the "wrongs" enacted by previous Congresses. Lesher cites numerous examples of government inefficiency and meddling to support his argument. While his book will not be to everyone's taste, it does present an articulate apologetic for the conservative point of view. Recommended for larger public libraries.Robert L. Logsdon, Indiana State Univ. Lib., IndianapolisBook Details
Published
May 1, 1996
Publisher
New York : Dutton, c1996.
Pages
240
Format
Hardcover
ISBN
9780525941941