No Way Home - Co-Written by Wayne Winegarden

 

NO WAY HOME

The Crisis of Homelessness and

How to Fix it With Intelligence and Humanity

Co-Written by Wayne Winegarden

In the new book, NO WAY HOME: The Crisis of Homelessness and How to Fix it with Intelligence and Humanity, Policy Economist, Wayne Winegarden and his fellow authors examine the causes of homelessness with a focus on unaffordable housing, poverty, mental illness, substance addiction, and legal reform. It examines the state and local policy environment to determine ways in which housing policy, social service programs, and employment opportunities interact to exacerbate, perpetuate, or reduce homelessness.

In San Diego, not far from the gates of the fantasy world at Disneyland, tent cities lining the freeways remind us of an ugly reality. Homeless individuals are slowing rail traffic between Sacramento and the Bay Area and swarming subway trains in Los Angeles in search of a place to sleep when they're not languishing on Skid Row. Drug use among the homeless is plaguing communities, with discarded needles threatening children playing at public parks. And every day across California, thousands of homeless youth who lack safe and stable housing struggle to stay in school, to perform well academically, and to form meaningful connections with their teachers and peers... and that was BEFORE the Coronavirus lockdown of schools all over America.

In NO WAY HOME, you'll learn that:

·    California's homeless problem differs from the rest of the U.S. While homelessness went up in the country in 2020, homelessness in the U.S. had been declining for many years even while the problem was continually worsening in the U.S.

·    California's homeless crisis is caused by the state's economic and policy decisions, reinforced by unhelpful legal precedents.

·    The major economic causes are the array of policies (zoning regulations, California Environmental Quality Act, environmental policies) that make California an unaffordable place to live. The lack of affordability pushes too many Californians to the edge, unable to withstand an adverse life or economic event that people in other states could weather.

·    Legal rulings are creating a de facto right to sleep on the street. Policy changes like Prop. 47, which turned larceny under $950 into a misdemeanor not a felony, enables the people who are homeless due to problems with substance abuse to finance their addictions. In combination, these changes are increasing the number of homeless suffering from mental illness or substance abuse.

·    Sustainably addressing the crisis requires reforms that address the key drivers.

Since the 1980s, countless research studies have been published on the topic of homelessness in America. Too often, however, social science research on homelessness is narrow in scope, mired in politics, and reliant on questionable assumptions about the root causes of the problem. The severity of the homeless crises afflicting cities requires innovative solutions backed by credible data and objective research.

NO WAY HOME evaluates different strategies being used at the state, county, and local levels to prevent or reduce homelessness. Finally, the authors provide a mix of long-term policy solutions based on their findings that have the greatest potential to reduce homelessness.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Dr. Wayne Winegarden is a senior fellow in business and economics at PRI and director of PRI's Center for Medical Economics and Innovation. He is a policy economist whose areas of study include the economic impacts from regulatory policies with an emphasis on their consequences on affordability and regressivity. Through his intensive background as a business economist, Winegarden tells the story of how public policy has exacerbated California's homelessness issues, from the steep cost of housing that's priced people out of homes to the unaffordable cost of living.

EXIT RICH By Michelle Seiler Tucker

 

EXIT RICH

The "6 P Method" to Sell Your Business for Huge Profit

By Michelle Seiler Tucker

In the new book by Michelle Seiler Tucker - the leading authority on buying, selling, and improving businesses - EXIT RICH: The "6 P Method" to Sell Your Business for Huge Profit, has created a must-have guide for all business owners, whether they're gearing up to sell a business now or just getting started building out their company into something to sell for a profit in the future. Steve Forbes says of EXIT RICH, "It's stunning that so many business owners end up leaving so much equity on the table when they want to cash out. That's why this book will be a goldmine for these entrepreneurs."

Too many entrepreneurs push off planning for the sale of their business until the last moment, only to discover they can't find a buyer. But for a business to sell for what it's really worth - or even more - owners need to prepare for the sale from the very start using Seiler Tucker's most effective techniques.

In EXIT RICH, you'll learn:

·    The business landscape has changed dramatically over the years. In 2013, I researched small businesses extensively and found that 85-95% of all startups will go out of business in the first five years, as compared to today when only 30% of startups will fail within five years, but a whopping 70% of businesses (out of 27.6 million) that have been in business for ten years or longer will fail.

·    You hear about the public companies all the time, such as the big box stores like Toys "R" Us, Kmart, Stein Mart, and Pier 1. But what you don't hear about is the small businesses on every street corner, in every town, and in every state across our great nation that are dropping like flies.

·    According to Forbes, 8 out of 10 businesses don't sell, and this was before COVID. Don't become part of this startling statistic; instead, learn how to build a sustainable, scalable, and sellable business, so when you are ready, you can EXIT RICH.

·    The importance of planning your exit strategy from day one using the "ST GPS Exit Model."

·    The importance of building your business on the ST 6 P's, or the 6 cylinders every business should operate on - they are essential to building a company that will attract buyers and sell for maximum value.

·    Which industries are hot and which industries are not? Which are on the way up and which are on the way out?

·    Why it is essential to AIM: Always Innovate and Market, to keep up with changing customer demand so you don't become the next Blockbuster.

Seiler Tucker's brilliant twofold approach to selling your business for maximum profit combines two of the most powerful elements of her mergers and acquisitions toolkit: the ''ST GPS Exit Model'' to help business owners set goals for the sale before their business hit the market, and the ''6 P Method'' to help them objectively evaluate their business's worth, before their potential buyers do. Combined, these tools provide invaluable insight into the process of preparing a business for sale, finding the right buyers, and staging the sale itself.

EXIT RICH provides a step-by-step blueprint for maximizing your business profits, as you learn how to evaluate your business, when to sell it, and how to work with the top business authorities to make that happen. It is a great resource for any business owner looking to objectively evaluate their business before a sale, improve their chances of finding the right buyer, and sell their business for maximum profit.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Michelle Seiler Tucker is the Founder and CEO of Seiler Tucker Incorporated. She has sold hundreds of businesses to date and currently owns and operates several successful businesses. She is the leading authority on buying, selling, and improving businesses, as well as increasing a business and revenue streams.

Was Jesus a Socialist? By Lawrence Reed

 

Socialism Today

Was Jesus a Socialist?

Why this Question is Being Asked Again and Why the Answer is Almost Always Wrong

In his book, Was Jesus a Socialist? economist and historian Lawrence W. Reed demolishes the idea that Jesus called on earthly governments to redistribute wealth or centrally plan the economy - or even to impose a welfare state.

Was Jesus a Socialist? could not be timelier. Consider...

·    More than half of young Americans say they'd rather live in a socialist country than in a capitalist one;

·    In a 2016 Barna Group poll, Americans said that socialism aligns better with Jesus's teachings than capitalism does and that self-proclaimed "democratic socialist" Bernie Sanders aligns closest to Jesus's teachings; and

·    In a 2019 survey, more than 70 percent of millennials said they were likely to vote for a socialist.

Reed answers the claims of socialists and progressives who try to enlist Jesus in their causes. As he reveals, nothing in the New Testament supports their contentions. In Was Jesus a Socialist? you'll learn:

·    There’s a rising chorus around the country that suggests Jesus was either an ethical socialist at heart or was sympathetic to socialist economic ideas. This book explains for a broad, lay audience - Christian or non-Christian - that this perspective is hugely mistaken.

·    Jesus was neither a socialist nor a capitalist, but the ethics and economics of his teachings are compatible with one and not the other. Which one? The answer, and the reasoning behind it, may surprise you.

·    Jesus spoke frequently about the importance of helping the poor, but how that is to be accomplished makes all the difference in the world.

·    The rich are routinely denigrated and may soon get hit with higher tax rates. Is this compatible with what Jesus said about them?

·    Can a person be either a socialist or a capitalist and Christian at the same time? This book answers that question definitively.

·    As the Biden administration pursues expansive programs to fight poverty and joblessness and pushes for higher taxes on the rich to help fund them, some will be claiming that all this is "the Christian thing to do." Is that a defensible position?

Ultimately, Reed shows the foolishness of trying to enlist Jesus in any political cause today. He writes: "While I don’t believe it is valid to claim that Jesus was a socialist, I also don’t think it is valid to argue that he was a capitalist. Neither was he a Republican nor a Democrat. These are modern-day terms, and to apply any of them to Jesus is to limit him to but a fraction of who he was and what he taught."

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Lawrence W. Reed is President Emeritus of the Foundation for Economic Education (FEE). A former professor of economics, he is the author or editor of several other books, including Excuse Me, Professor: Challenging the Myths of Progressivism and Real Heroes: Inspiring True Stories of Courage, Character, and Conviction. He is a frequent guest on radio and television and an international speaker.

Cooperation & Coercion By Antony Davies and James Harrigan

 

COOPERATION AND COERCION

By Antony Davies and James Harrigan

In their enlightening book, COOPERATION AND COERCION: How Busybodies Became Busybullies and What That Means for Economics and Politics, Antony Davies and James Harrigan show that government is all about coercive power. That doesn't mean it's all bad. We need government. But they show the immense - and overlooked - power of cooperation... and the dangers of embracing government coercion as the knee-jerk reaction to any problem.

In COOPERATION AND COERCION, you'll learn:

·    COOPERATION AND COERCION provides a model for how the left and right can come together to solve our shared problems. The author looks at major problems facing the country from the perspective of fact and reason rather than party.

·    COOPERATION AND COERCION describes government and markets as neither good nor bad, but as tools that society uses. The trick to successfully addressing our shared problems lies in knowing which tool is best suited to which problem.

·    Whenever humans work together, they organize themselves either according to principles of cooperation or principles of coercion. Coercion, typically applied through governments, is best suited for preventing people from harming each other, and overcoming problems that can’t be addressed through voluntary means. Cooperation, typically applied through markets, civic organizations, and informal relationships, is best suited for finding creative solutions through decentralized decision-making and overcoming problems that require local knowledge.

·    Contemporary discussions of rights often fail because people confuse two distinct types of rights: negative rights (the right not to be interfered with) and positive rights (the right to be provided for). The Constitution was crafted around the idea of negative rights, but since the 1920s, Americans have come to embrace the idea of positive rights, and this has given rise to the remarkable growth in government we’ve seen over the past century.

·    The more we ask government to do for us, the more it must intrude into our lives and our pocketbooks. The inevitable consequence is that almost everything in our lives becomes politicized. And when that happens, communities fracture along party lines.

·    Raising the minimum wage is a good idea – but only for people who manage to keep their jobs. The wage rate isn’t a lever by which we can set the value of labor. It is a metric that measures the value of labor.

·    Historically, it hasn’t mattered whether the federal government has taxed the rich, taxed the poor, taxed corporations, or taxed households. It also hasn’t mattered whether those tax rates are high or low. The revenue the federal government collects from all sources combined has remained a pretty constant 18% of the GDP.

·    As long as humans have lived in communities, we’ve had busybodies – people who stick their noses in others' business. But when government is able to intrude into our lives and tell us what things we may and may not consume, who we may and may not marry, where we may and may not live, busybodies level-up, becoming busybullies who don’t merely have opinions as to how you should live your life. They co-opt the power of government to force you to live your life the way they see fit.

You'll come away from this book with a clear understanding of everything from the minimum wage to taxes, from gun control to government regulations, from the War on Terror to the War on Drugs to the War on Poverty. People on both sides of the American divide are tired of the animosity and disrespect with which we treat each other, but they don't know how to stop. We provide an example of how to address divisive topics.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Antony Davies is associate professor of economics at Duquesne University and distinguished fellow at the Foundation for Economic Education (FEE).