Dollar Democracy (BOOK REVIEW)

Dollar Democracy:

With Liberty and Justice for Some

by Peter Mathews

CreateSpace

Paperback, $24.99

368 pages

ISBN: 978-1-49605973-4

Book Review by Kam Williams

           

“Big corporations and their super wealthy owners have bought many American politicians through campaign contributions and lobbying. These politicians have voted to benefit their donors, not the American public… The Corporate dominated policies of these sponsored politicians have resulted in the greatest gap between the American rich and poor since the Great Depression…

They have made decisions that led to: outsourcing good middle-class jobs; dismantling our public education system; deteriorating health care that leaves Americans in danger, sick and broke; the destroying of our environment; the polluting of our food through deregulation of Big Agribusiness, pesticide use, and proliferation of Genetically-Modified Foods: the crash of Wall Street and the Great Recession, from which the bottom 99% of Americans have not yet recovered.” 

Excerpted from the Book Jacket

In recent years, the American Dream has proven to be increasingly elusive for most of us. Even if you’re lucky enough to have a job, you’re probably working longer hours for less pay.

Meanwhile, millions of jobs are being outsourced to China, Bangladesh, India, Vietnam, Mexico, the Philippines and other countries that don’t have decent child labor, minimum wage and/or occupational health and safety standards. Consequently, it’s no surprise that there have been several suicides at Apple factories by disgruntled peasants paid only pennies per hour to perform repetitive tasks for 10-12 hours, 7 days a week, with no compensation for overtime.  

What makes Third World nations so attractive to multinational corporations are the cheap labor and absence of consequences for human rights violations. Let’s face it, it’s impossible for unions operating in the U.S. to be as appealing to a company as a totally submissive labor force that’s easy to exploit with the help of a Communist government.

This is among the critical factors contributing to the current, domestic economic crisis discussed in detail in Dollar Democracy: With Liberty and Justice for Some. The insightful tome was written by Peter Mathews, political science professor, talk show host and former Democratic Party nominee for Congress in Long Beach, California.

Besides jobs, the author sets his sights on such hot button topics as education, health care, the environment, Wall Street vs. Main Street, and election finance reform. Invariably weighing in from a progressive perspective, Mathews is dismayed that, “An American child’s chance of acquiring a quality education depends more on the parents’ income than on almost anything else.”

Despite the country’s dire state of affairs, he remains optimistic, and closes the opus with some viable plan for the people to reclaim the American Dream. The literary equivalent of a one-man million-man march for equality and justice for every U.S. citizen.

             

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