I was pretty disappointed in this book. While there is some good points made that can start a good conversation, most is the same alarmist media that John Stossel is accusing others of. For example on on page 109 he shows that in a testing of 24 countries of kids at age 10 our country ranked 8th. Then in a testing of 40 countries of kids at age 15 we ranked 25. He used this as proof that our schools were failing. However, if you looked all 16 of the countries that were not in the first study are before the US in the second study. Meaning that if you don't count them, we have only dropped from 8th to 9th. Not nearly so alarming.

Could make a good waiting room book or bathroom book, but not nearly enough good facts to be something you want to base your own strong opinions on.

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Entertaining read. It seems time and resources were expended getting real answers and I was hard pressed to find anything to disagree with here. Many of the conclusions were counter-intuitive, which is most likely why the general public as well as many "experts" so often get it wrong. The sources cited at the end of the book are solid and relatively comprehensive.

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This book was very informative and interesting, and I enjoyed listening to his opinions. HOWEVER, be aware that this is an abridged edition and the following topics are NOT covered in this edition:

Do singles have a better sex life than married people?
Suburban sprawl is ruining America.
The world is too crowded.
We're drowning in garbage.
Sweatshops exploit people.

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very interesting read- lots to think about and a great conversation starter

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This was an interesting read. The first few sections were a big slow for me. I found it much more interesting when he got to the consumer lies and ones about lawsuits. Those definitely were entertaining.

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I was pretty disappointed in this book. While there is some good points made that can start a good conversation, most is the same alarmist media that John Stossel is accusing others of. For example on on page 109 he shows that in a testing of 24 countries of kids at age 10 our country ranked 8th. Then in a testing of 40 countries of kids at age 15 we ranked 25. He used this as proof that our schools were failing. However, if you looked all 16 of the countries that were not in the first study are before the US in the second study. Meaning that if you don't count them, we have only dropped from 8th to 9th. Not nearly so alarming.

Could make a good waiting room book or bathroom book, but not nearly enough good facts to be something you want to base your own strong opinions on.

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