Glenn Beck's Broke

The first third of the book discusses how America got into the position of being broke in the first place. This book briefly touches upon previous world powers, like Rome and Greece, and how they declined (oddly, their circumstances resemble America of today). The book then delves into America's history. I the answer lies somewhere in the Progressive era and involves Woodrow Wilson, but it doesn't end there. Wilson isn't the only character to blame. There has been a whole line of politicians that have helped America get to where we are today. I was pleasantly surprised when reading this section of the book. Whereas Arguing With Idiots rehashed a lot of material that he discussed on his television show, there is a lot of information in this book that was only briefly talked about on the show. Not only does this section go more in-depth about the history of progressivism, there are clues left in the book of places to go if you want to find out more information. Beck mentions several books in this section, such as The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.

This section discusses history all the way up to the Obama administration.

The next third of Broke tries to answer the question "how bad is the situation?" For far too long, we (America in general) have been pretending that everything is fine, and that we'll always be okay, because "we're America". It's time to take a good, hard look about how bad the situation is. In order to make the sacrifices that we need to make, we have to get out of denial mode.

If you are an avid watcher of Glenn Beck, then you probably know that it's pretty bad. In Broke, you'll be able to see quite a bit of charts and graphs to see how bad it is. While Aяguing with Idiots went over a lot of information that Beck was able to cover in his show, this book goes beyond what he can cover in one hour a day. While the information really is not a surprise if you're already awake, there is valuable information in here. I have already been able to use some of the information in an article that I wrote the other day.

The final third of Broke deals with the solution. What must be done to get America back on the right track? This isn't the politically correct answer that people want to hear, it's the hard, cold, depressing truth. How drastic to we need to cut things? There is no easy road out of the mess that we're in.

This section covers the eight steps that we need to take to bring this country back to greatness (after some likely pain). If you watch the show regularly, again, none of this will be completely new information, but the book goes more in-depth into the different things that our country needs: we need to focus on individual rights again, we need to give everyone equal opportunity (but not try to guarantee equal outcome), we need to restore faith, decentralize the government, cut spending, make taxes more equal for everyone (which will encourage growth and lead to more wealth for everyone), cut waste, and make a few changes to get rid of corrupt politicians.

While conservatives may not agree with all of the solutions, they make common sense. They are possible though, if we as a country do not fall asleep again. The past election cycle will only be the beginning of our struggle if we want to bring our country back.

Glenn Beck's Broke is worth reading. There is more information here than in Aяguing with Idiots; if you read the book and thought that there just wasn't enough information in there that you haven't seen before, Broke has resolved that problem. This book is a good reference.

The book is quite readable and is interesting. Graphs and extra boxes with quotes, newspaper headlines, and "Teachable Moments" add to the interest. Even the pages of the book itself are colorful (but not distracting). At the end of each chapter of the last section, there are additional resources listed if you want more information. The sources at the end are also useful, especially if you are trying to write an article and need to look up a primary resource (I've already used that section too for my writing).

The big question is, should you buy the book? If you've read Beck's books before and enjoyed them, you'll probably like this book too. The book is more scholarly than some of his previous books, but if you have read some of the books on Glenn Beck's recommended reading list, then you're probably used to meatier books. On the other hand, it's not so scholarly that it loses its mass appeal or is hard to read.

Times are tough for just about everyone. Perhaps, like me, you're broke and can't afford to buy Glenn Beck's Broke, along with all the other books that he recommends that you read. The answer that I have found to keep me knee-deep in books is Swagbucks.

How do I get free books from Swagbucks? I sign up, then I use Swagbucks as my search engine. I'm always writing, so I search a lot. You probably search a lot too (don't we all). The search results come from Google and Ask.com. 99% of the time, my Swagbucks searches will come up with the web site that I'm trying to find. The only time that I don't get exactly what I want is if I'm searching for a breaking news story; occasionally, I might be looking for a very obscure topic and a Google search might work better too.

When you're searching, you periodically get notices that "You've won X amount of Swagbucks!" Swagbucks are much easier to win than the lottery; I win at least once just about every day that I am working on the computer. The amount that you win often varies; it's usually about 10 Swagbucks, although sometimes it's 50, other times it's 7. I trade in 450 Swagbucks for a $5 Amazon.com card. There are other ways to get Swagbucks and other prizes, but that's about all I do with Swagbucks. I earned $100 worth of Amazon.com cards through Swagbucks during my first year just through searching.