Burton W. FolsomReseñas

American entrepreneurs built this country and this volume describes several important figures in business from the Michigan area.

3/24/22

The law of unintended consequences if one is charitable; a differing view of the various New Deal programs from the normal accolades one finds in most Secondary Educational and Collegiate history textbooks.

The book would definitely be placed in a Cons List in judging the effects of the New Deal; it is recommended as a counterpoint view to the majority positive view of the New Deal; it is biased though in primarily promoting a negative view of the New Deal, and especially of President Roosevelt himself.

It seems to me, that regardless of how one views the New Deal, it does mark a watershed moment where the Nation as a whole has been changed for better or worse.

Another must-read like [b:While Europe Slept How Radical Islam is Destroying the West from Within|40619|While Europe Slept How Radical Islam is Destroying the West from Within|Bruce Bawer|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1169437594s/40619.jpg|40204] that draws parallels between the Great Depression and modern economic policies. It is highly critical of not only FDR, but his republican predecessor, Hoover.

This was not a good fit for me. While I applaud the notion of rehabilitation and finding resources of faith in incarceration, I didn’t find the author’s voice authentic. Maybe this is due to ghost writer assistance.

I worked as an executive for an agency that manages Job Corps Centers, including the one Rutledge attended. These government funded agencies can be a turn around for at-risk youth but the student has to commit. Rutledge’ s lack of commitment and responsibility, especially to prostitute runaways he helped prey upon, really bothered me. It’s like he dismissed his criminal activity on one, “I wasn’t so awful” and two, “it’s my upbringing”.There is certainly statistical merit to this argument. However, the author’s voice does not match the nature of his true story.

This could be due to the editing and not the subject. Overall, not my favorite on the subject and a missed opportunity to provide a relatable narrative to at-risk youth and related parties like the Folsoms. See Sister Helen Prejean for seemingly truer to life death row rehab stories. Or better yet, see some at -risk youth in action by volunteering somewhere!

Provided by publisher

In January 1983 Burt Folsom read Kurt Andersen's article The Death Penalty: Eye for an Eye in Time Magazine about Mitch Rutledge, a black man on death row with an IQ of 84 who said he was sorry for what he did. "Forget him," were the last words. Burt wrote Mitch a letter and discovered a man more intelligent and interesting than the article had shown. With his wife Anita, Burt started writing, and visiting Mitch in Holman Prison, where he was detained. Mitch used the letters to teach himself to read and write.
Death on Hold is part memoir, a coming of age by Mitch Rutledge himself. He recounts his youth, the gang life of human trafficking, selling and using drugs and fatal violence, including the murder for which he was sentenced in 1981. Rutledge is open about life in prison, the similarities with the violence, politics outside. Mitch also testifies about the wonderful way God revealed Himself to Mitch. Ever since Mitch learned to trust in God, resist sinful practices in prison, develop himself up to the point where he currently is a community manager and public speaker on making the right choices to an audience of teens at risk. While death row was changed into life without parole in 1989, in 2015 Mitch still lives as inmate, having survived tuberculosis and many death threats by inmates.
Mitch's story is alternated with poems, short letters, and stories by Burt and Anita Folsom, a Catholic sister Lillian, Bill, his sisters Pam and Rachel. Mitch is counted as one to make a difference, propelled by his desire to make his life the call.

FDR’s New Deal while greatly increasing the Federal government’s power over markets, prices, and contracts provided jobs for millions, promoted investment, and recovered the country from the ravages of the Great Depression.
Or did it?
This is the question that Burton Folsom, Jr takes on in his 2008 book, New Deal or Raw Deal.
Folsom’s answer is a resounding no. He methodically dissects the various acts and policies from the National Industrial Recovery Act through the implementation of the minimum wage and social security to show how most, if not all of these programs, prolonged the effects of the Depression and were counterproductive to the long term wealth of the country.
Ultimately, however, Folsom falls into the same trap Roosevelt did. The problem with Roosevelt’s presidency was that developing the cult of his personality became the pre-eminent principle guiding his actions. Attacking that personality has become Folsom’s and he loses some of the power of his arguments by making Roosevelt the target as opposed to simply exposing the failed policies and practices.
Yet, Folsom has done us a great favor by being one of the first to charge this hill, relying on facts instead of myths to lay bare the real impacts of these policies.
Of course, there is tremendous relevance to today’s situation, in many ways.

Here is another book which should be studied in high schools and universities. Unfortunately, a serious challenge to the myth of FDR's greatness would never be tolerated among today's liberal academic establishment. It is hard to imagine that FDR was the greatest president of the twentieth century, as many historians allege, in the face of overwhelming and credible evidence to the contrary as presented by this author. The traditional story we are taught in school is that FDR guided America out of The Great Depression. In truth, when presented with unemployment and other economic data from that era, it is difficult to come to any other conclusion but that FDR's New Deal policies actually delayed the Depression and indeed led to a depression within a depression by the end of the 1930's. By the spring of 1939, after over six years of New Deal policies, unemployment was still over 20%! Judging by FDR's actions, one senses that he was less interested in economic recovery than he was in expanding his own political power. He regularly funneled taxpayer money into patronage jobs in swing states to assure his own and his party's victories in the elections of 1934 and 1936. This was outright vote buying and was not even the least bit subtle at times. For example, in the four months before the 1936 election, FDR directed that 300,000 men be signed up for government jobs with the WPA (Works Progress Administration). In the month AFTER the election (after FDR secured victory), all 300,000 jobs were promptly terminated! Another unsavory tactic employed by FDR was to use the IRS against his political enemies. According to his son, Elliott, FDR "may have been the originator of the concept of employing the IRS as a weapon of political retribution." Consequently, many of his political enemies wound up audited and sometimes jailed. FDR was also downright hostile to business throughout the 30's, taxing them exorbitantly. In 1942, he signed an executive order taxing 100% of personal income over $25,000, saying it was necessary to win the war. So what finally did get the country out of the depression? According to the author, it was two main factors. One was WWII, which put many of the unemployed to work overseas, as soldiers or home, working in munitions factories. The second was FDR's death in 1945, which resulted in Truman becoming president. He was far less hostile to business and poll data from that time reflect a sharp increase in optimism about business. Less uncertainty about onerous taxes and regulation eventually led to expanded production and thus the U.S. economy was able to "absorb the returning soldiers and those who had previously worked to make war equipment." This well-researched and thought-provoking book seems doubly relevant during our current economic crisis. I highly recommend it to anyone interested in history, economics and politics.

This is a good collection of short biographies. The heroes are portrayed as clever and hard-working. As a defense of capitalism, this is an abysmal failure. The author obviously doesn't understand the moral underpinnings of capitalism. His tries paint all of the businessmen with the brush of his christian morality. He writes an entire chapter on how these men were serving the people, despite obvious evidence to the contrary (Dow's actions and motivations are completely selfish). Kellogg should never have been included. He is no hero -- he peddles a diet based on divine inspiration. What a joke!