In Pursuit of Happiness and Good Government by Charles Murray (PDF)

Description

Pushes for a return of Jeffersonian ideals of democracy with government assuming a greatly reduced role in the everyday lives of people, outlining how present policies have debased the overall standard of living

User’s Reviews

Editorial Reviews: From Publishers Weekly Murray, a senior research fellow at the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research and the author of Losing Ground , launches a relentlessly unfocussed argument which includes the thesis that Jeffersonian democracy is perfectly applicable in the contemporary United States. Assuming that the pursuit of happiness should be a criterion in making public policy, he explores the enabling conditions of that pursuit (access to material resources, safety, self-respect prominent among them), then draws a fuzzy linkage between them and the concepts of challenge, competency and autonomy. His conclusion is that the pursuit of happiness is rooted in Edmund Burke’s “little platoons” of work, family and community, and that the government, in order to encourage, nourish and protect these elemental functions, should keep interference to a minimum. He argues for “a radically more decentralized and limited government.” Alas, Murray does not say how this might be brought about. First serial to National Review; Conservative Book Club dual main selection. Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc. From Library Journal Murray’s best seller, Losing Ground: American Social Policy 1950-1980, touted the virtues of small government. In this latest work, again sure to please conservatives and provoke liberals, he proposes that government not try to make people happy, but instead provide “enabling conditions” that ease their pursuit of happiness. These conditions notably include minimal welfare to provide merely the staples of life. Further attention to needy persons, he contends, should be provided by communities and local institutions. He acknowledges that his approach is especially difficult in poor inner cities with their alienation, impersonality, etc., but he nonetheless believes that typical governmental welfare only perpetuates poverty. A sophisticated treatment with potential broad appeal. David Steiniche, Missouri Western State Coll., St. JosephCopyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐This book is a must for getting a better understanding of how far off our government is moving from the way it was intended to be by the founding fathers, and why the fathers had very good reasons for their ideas about how government should be. I liked it because it is helping me to understand the underlying ideas of government, a topic that is important to my personal politcal awakening. Also I really liked that it deals somewhat with human nature and psychology, incidentally providing important insight about how to live a good life as an individual that is part of a group (as we all are).

⭐This book presents an alternative and potentially more successful basis for public policy – modesty – and a return to the fundamentals proposed by our founding fathers which were so successful until the last 60 years.

⭐This book is brilliantly written and presented. It is one of those books you get so involved in you almost forget the time and how long you’ve been reading. I know some people would disagree with the author, but honestly after reading this book I don’t see how they could support a counter viewpoint successfully. Even if doubtful, you should give this book a chance it’ll make you more knowledgeable in any case.

⭐Arrived on time and in great condition. Hope to finish it before Obama destroys economy completely!Impeachment time~! Write your Congressman/woman . . . enough of the tyrant is enough!

⭐This is another very fine work by Charles Murray. Interesting review of happiness research and good conclusions.

⭐Awkwardly written. Too detailed where the reader cannot see the forest for the trees. Written by an intellectual in the worst sense of the word.

⭐Awesome condition

⭐Charles Murray’s first book that intelligently defines happiness and then suggests a process for public policy to meet people’s happiness.

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