The Seventeen Solutions: Bold Ideas for Our American Future

Consumer advocate and former presidential candidate Nader shares his progressive, humanitarian ideas for how to improve American lives in an era when corporate profits are skyrocketing, but American workers and their families are poorer than they’ve been in decades. Taking on corporate crime, tax reform, civil liberties, and alternative energy, among other topics, Nader emphasizes how “a shift in power from the few to the many” will lead to more fairness, less corruption, and economic stability. He urges Americans to break the stranglehold of gigantic corporations by cracking down on their subsidies, tax loopholes, and corporate crime. In addition, he advocates for a tax on Wall Street speculation and federal charters for U.S. corporations that would empower shareholders, require companies to observe union rights, and abolish “the legal fiction” that corporations are people. Nader is most effective when he urges Americans to re-engage with civic life, retake control of the public airwaves, and become consumer advocates and congressional watchdogs, and he offers practical advice for doing so. He is less convincing when calling on Congress to impeach the current and former presidents for the unauthorized wars in Libya and Iraq, or when he tries to link the violence in video games to rising youth crime. But overall, Nader’s passionate ideas should resonate with all concerned Americans. (Oct.)