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Summary: Finally, a book about this lingering thought
Review: As someone who has struggled to comply with reams of intractable federal regulations, I've often paused at this thought: there's something massively wrong with laws in the US. Howard captures the essence of the problem admirably. It's reassuring to know you're not alone in being bewildered by a system that has gone so awry.
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Summary: Thought Provoking yet.......
Review: Overall, I think this book is fairly interesting and thought provoking. Yet it is not for the light hearted, it is pretty dense and is not casual reading.
Howard's thesis is simple: American Law is so meticulous that is fails to carry out the intended purpose and becomes rather silly and bothersome. The law gives power to those regaurdles of who it tramples. His points of interst include those about how "rights" is now just a term for people abusing power. In the end, Howard suggests that although it might seem scary, America would be "smarter" in its regulation if the laws gave people more responsibility and room for interpretation. Regulations do not work for every instance, and the founding fathers were ambiguoius with the constitution for a reason.
The book contained many examples and statistics that were organized and shocking. At the end of the book, I felt dissapointed with the legal system. The way Howard puts it, it feels that unless all the people of a higher legal standard suddenly have an epiphany, our laws will continue to be riduculous and unproductive. Overall the book was not engaging, but interesting.
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Summary: A book of facts and logic
Review: I think this book is excellent and does a great job in getting its point across. This book is told from a liberal point of view. The idea that the mass amounts of laws and rules are undermining our own judgment is an idea that most people, like me, take lightly. When you add up all the rules and regulations that a company has to follow, you will see that most of the rules are rules that do not effect and work for all situations.
This book definitely helps you see a perspective that you most likely have not ever seen. Seeing how this book was published to tell people about the laws over powering ability, it does only tell you one side of the story.
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Summary: Interesting, disturbing, and frustrating.
Review: The atmosphere in America has changed. "Americans feel on a daily basis that their society is falling apart, that things aren't working right." Mr. Howard is exactly right. Although Mr. Trafficant who was...expelled from Congress may actually be guilty of the charges alleged of him. His comments about how the American people view and fear their government, the judicial system and the various organizations that solidify the awesome and terrifying power of the political machines in American, are in large part true. This is not because all those entities could not work if filled with virtuous men and women as the Federalist Papers charge. But because they have been bogged down in 200 plus years of misdirection, partisanship and political corruption, the kind of corruption that seeps into any long running program, party, powerful entity or political machine. We could fix this degradation in our national political process by moving back onto a better path. But influential people today have, as Mr. Richard Maybury says in his excellent "Uncle Eric" series of books, on government and finances, lost their mental, emotional and political view of the true and best "American model" for our nation politically, socially, morally and judiciously. All it would take to fix this would be the will of the people united in a common cause to once again "create that more perfect union," or MODEL spoken of in the Preamble to our Constitution. It could be done, it should be done, but the question is do we have the will to make it come to pass? One draw back to excessive diversity is a lack of cohesiveness on the important issues that face our nation and the world. It is astounding that the summation of all the laws ever written since it's creation are already contained in the precepts, principles, and guidance given and envisioned within the Preamble to the Constitution, and the Articles and the Amendments that go with it. It is such a shame that nations tend to legislate and opinionate themselves into nonexistence. Even when they have it right, they seem to need to interfere and make things worse. Mr. Howard has done all of us a great service by producing this book and it is unfortunate that it has not received the prominence and accolades it is due, a great read...
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Summary: A more intelligent look into legal lunacy; quick read
Review: I wouldn't agree with the categorization of this book as an "explosive manifesto" (back cover), nor would I call this "incendiary ... stimulating" (front cover). As an American who too often cringes when our country's regulatory red tape strangles expediency and constructive decision making, I'd say "The Death of Common Sense" offers some poignant anecdotes in describing today's bureaucratic morass. Beyond this, author Philip K. Howard documents well the mentality which has spawned our dependency and passivity, and how we can refocus on how democracy is supposed to function. Mr. Howard's messages, evident throughout, are very obvious: we have substituted innovation with process, created enemies instead of cooperative societies, and squashed case-by-case reasoning under mountains of procedural law. There are so many "rights" covering every interest group that very little gets done for the benefit of the majority. "Trusting in the law" now means being wary of nearly everyone. Although sounding a bit rant-stricken at times, Mr. Howard offers up lots of food for thought ... some amazing stories. It's all pretty interesting and easy to read. In my opinion, the last (and shortest) of the book's four parts, entitled "Releasing Ourselves," falls short of hitting on a way to get out from under suffocating law. I agree that initiative and responsibility are admirable attributes for executives in both the public and private arenas, and further, that universally applied policies that regulate the most minute procedural detail should instead have flexibility for more real-world applications. However, what happens when the most innovative of directives winds up injuring or killing someone? Will Joe Citizen give up his right (there's that word) to sue? I doubt it. And, as long as legal recourse remains the ultimate equalizer, the happy medium between "buried in the fine print" and "total judgment call" will be awfully hard to come by. Mr. Howard doesn't address this issue. This is a very good read; however, a better balance between problem and solution would have made this book outstanding.
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Summary: Like fingers on a chalkboard
Review: Like fingers on a chalkboard, is probably the best way to describe the feeling this book imparts, it is frustration, revulsion at the present state of government and not the skillful writer that evokes this feeling. There are literally dozens upon dozens of mind boggling examples of lunacy derived from blindly-written laws, but unfortunately no clear answers given. This is probably the best book I have ever read that explains in detail and with excellent citation the reason one should want a smaller, less active, and less powerful central federal government. It does not fall into the ranting trap of some conservative books, with much on vague generalism with scant unproved anecdotes, but rather is cool, calm, reasoned, and very well researched. However, the writer's keen intellect and sharp eye when turned from deconstructing the government of laws, and turned to the solution falls into a morass of generalisms and bad analogies. This book however is an excellent start and an excellent read for anyone that thinks to themselves, "WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG, TODAY!" The Death of Common Sense, answers alot of questions.
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Summary: Endless rant
Review: Howard should have borrowed from Dennis Miller and started the book with "I don't mean to go on a rant here, but..." and then proceeded with his 187 pages of endless whining about how horrible the law is in America. The examples given (about how law is suffocating America) are sometimes right on the mark and at other times not as well defined. Less would have been more. His ideas of how to fix this dilemma are also good...if we lived in a perfect world. Unfortunately, we don't. With no practical solutions and a message lost amongst a myriad of words, I woudn't recommend this book to anyone but Ted Kazinski.
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Summary: process, process, process
Review: law is bogged down in process, confined by bureaucracy and unable to rely on quick, instinctival decisions made by human beings. Howard accentuates law's faults in a thoughtful analysis of the current state of law and government.
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Summary: Required reading for all Americans
Review: Philip K. Howard, The Death of Common Sense: How Law is Suffocating America (Random House, 1994)
by what little justice there is on this planet I don't think there's a single person in America outside Capitol Hill who doesn't realize that the more laws you have, the more loopholes the laws contain, and the more subject to abuse those laws are. But just in case you need a quick refresher course on how Washington is helping the abusers do their thing and giving the rest of us the middle finger, Howard's book stands as a fine testimony to what doesn't work, why it doesn't work, and the bleedingly simple solution to the whole stupid mess. In three long, painful chapters, Howard takes critical looks at the Congressional love of process and how that love has led us to the conclusion that process is more important than result. Looked at as a simple sentence, it's a pretty absurd belief, isn't it? Look around. Process rules. Howard points out, in multiple places, two of the recent high-profile projects that circumvented process (the rebuilding of the freeways after the California Earthquake of 1992, and the refurbshing of a major new York bridge in time for its centennial ceremony), and compares and contrasts them to numerous examples of process in action, highlighting the idiocy of process while taking a hard look at the overly liberal viewpoints that spawn it. There won't be too many people who like Howard's easy and obvious solution-- if too many laws are the problem, then get rid of as many of them as necessary to fix it. But logic leads us back to that conclusion time and again. As important a book, and as deserving of a place on the shelf reserved for sacred writings, as Stanton Peele's The Diseasing of America. **** 1/2
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Summary: What happened to Common Sense is right! Where'd it go?
Review: Terrific. Government gridlock explained. How it all got started and how it all got out of hand. He gives many examples that will have you shaking your head in disgust. What got my goat was the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). What a bunch of ruthless selfish people involved in that. The idea is right but in practice it is abused. To think that gifted children (the future brains of our country/world), in comparison to disabled children (kids who don't even know they are alive etc.), receive virtually NO support or attention from America's school system. These disabled kids, who will never fully function in the world, now take precedence over the normal and gifted kids. And who's paying for all this costly extra attention, programs, teachers, classrooms for these autistic/severly retarded/catatonic kids? YOU with your taxes. What happened to Perspective. Priorities. Majority rules. Reason. Statistics. Compromise. Common sense is right! I had no idea this was going on. It's absurd. Wrong. I live in a town of 7,500 out in the boonies and have seen only ONE (1) wheelchaired person, yet our town is wheelchair fitted thru out. Even on the steep hillside streets where no wheelchair could possible go. In fact that one wheelchaired person is forcing our little library to put in all new restroom facilities that are wheelchair friendly. The librarian told me it has taken most all of her budget. Which she says means no new computers or books till next year. As it is now they can only afford to open for 4 days (6hr. days) outta 7. I never thought too much about it until now after having read this book. But now, Mr. Howard, how do we change it? Your next project is to lay out a step by step guide we the voters can follow to correct this mess. I'd like to see Mr. Howard on TV. Maybe on The Point With Greta Van Susteren, CourtSide with Roger Cossack or Larry King ... This is an eye opener of a book and should be required reading for all.
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