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Fixing America - An Engineer’s Solution to our Social, Cultural, and Political Problems

By William Taggart

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Jessica Chen

Reviewed on Feb 8, 2024

Must read 🏆

Informative and balanced analysis of varies of society issues we face today. Highly recommend.

Synopsis

Have you been wondering about the big issues dominating the news? Is climate change a massive threat or not? What is really going on with immigration? Should we be concerned about the national debt? More importantly, how did American politics become so divided and hostile?

What if we approached America's social, cultural and political problems from a purely rational perspective, with a focus on functional systems.  An engineering perspective would allow us to focus on what needs to be fixed rather than the ideological divisions tearing us apart.

Finally, one of America's top engineers has brought these topics and others together in a thought-provoking book. This book is rooted in history, facts, and logic, and it lays out solutions to America's problems. A book focused to get Americans talking to one another again, so we can rise to the occasion and solve today's problems together.

I don’t normally read political books. However, Fixing America covers a varieties of topics and is extremely informative on varieties of subjects.  The book provided tons of facts and history in each area that are informative in different subject matters.


This book is lengthy and full of data, (complete supplemental charts are listed on the author’s website).  It is separated by six major sections, each section covers different subjects with a digestible length on each chapter.  


The book emphasized that poverty is the biggest factor causing the most heated social issues.  Issues such as abortion, education, gun violence, etc. I have always felt that by simply improving education we could solve many of our social issues.  However, the book brought to focus on highlighting the cycle of American poverty and how to best to break that cycle, such as offering early education and made a strong argument on Universal Basic Income.


Personal responsibility is also a big take-away from the book. People have the freedom to make decisions for themselves but they also have to accept the consequences that ensue from their actions. 


In Section III on Social Policies (Chapters 14~18), Taggart quoted Jesse H. Jones:  “One of the greatest disservice you can do to a man is to lend him money that he can’t pay back.”   Taggart breaks down the objective and offers the solution by providing scholarships to necessary professions that communities need, (teachers, healthcare workers, technicians and scientists).  Everyone in the process, (the federal, local government and the student) all have a stake in the program’s success in providing services back to the communities.  


In Section IV on Energy, (Chapters 19~24), the road to a greener world with a smoother transition from coal, oil and gas industry and the realistic path of moving towards our collective goal of a greener world while not crashing the economy with a draconian shift to green energy.


In Section VI on Economic Policies, (Chapters 30~36), Taggart makes a convincing argument on why Universal Basic Income is necessary.  I especially enjoy the chapter on American Trash, where each household is charged by the amount of trash they generate.  


I highly recommend readers find the topics that interest them and start a conversation with their family, neighbors and coworkers.  We may all have differences of opinion but if we strive to understand different sides of the issue, we will be a better society and neighbor to one another.

Reviewed by
Jessica Chen

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