Gross, Martin

• A Call for Revolution

  • This is a somewhat simplistic, very stridently-voiced criticism of the status quo as of 1993, the year before the famous "Republican Revolution". I say simplistic not because I disagree with many of the points of the book. Quite the contrary, I like the idea of cutting the civilian government work force by about 33% based on merit, among other things. But this book is far too short to seriously discuss the ramifications of its many proposals.

    For example, sure, the current welfare system appears to encourage the behavior of some welfare mothers to have more children. But this book propagates the old myth that women are having kids for the sole reason of getting that extra government money (which amounts to a paltry sum per month). While I'm sure there are some women who behave this way, from what I've read, they are the exception rather than the rule. This book doesn't address the complexity of this issue, treating this simplified view that welfare mothers are in it for the money as a mantra. Also, what happens when the money is cut off? What happens to those kids? What is the basis for this policy in the first place? What other factors correlate with increases in welfare families? Are there any studies in comparable societies (or societies with an even more generous welfare system) in Europe? How do they differ from us, and what have been their successes and failures with welfare and child care?

    Hey, I'm open-minded. Gross may be right. Maybe all the welfare mothers are in it for the money and if we dry up the funding, unwanted pregnancies will more or less vanish. But how am I supposed to believe this will happen when Gross doesn't even touch on all these other questions? I use this point as an example of a large variety of issues Gross covers with extreme brevity. For that reason, the book is sort of entertaining (always fun watching someone else get worked up, as I'm sure you know if you've read some of my reviews), but as a contribution to the political dialogue, it is lacking. You'd be better off spending your 6 hours in the library reading back issues of "The New Republic" than this rant.

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