America's Youth vs. Big Government

A question I am often asked when talking about our book is why and how we decided to write a book.  There is no simple answer to that question.  In fact, it was a culmination of many events that led us to this project.  Some of this is detailed in the preface and introduction to our book, but I thought this would be a good place to give the longer version.

Tim and I were both raised in a middle-class, conservative family in a wealthy suburb of Milwaukee.  The county we lived in is one of the most conservative areas in the state, if not the entire country.  We were taught the essential conservative ideology of a hard work ethic, respect for religion, fiscal restraint, etc.  Unfortunately for us, during our formative years, Clinton was leaving office after his “cigar incident” and Bush was coming in as the new leader.

Not knowing better at the time, we threw our support behind “W”, believing he would embody the true conservative principles we believed in.  The older we became and the more we watched politics, we began to see that Bush was not much different from his predecessor in many regards.  We believed him and the other Republicans when they told us that social security reform was paramount to our country and that the wars in the middle east were necessary because they had weapons of mass destruction.  Again, promises from the campaign were broken as the Republicans governed with little to no input from their constituents.  Debt was piled on and unconstitutional actions such as domestic spying and wiretapping are now legal through a cleverly disguised law known as the Patriot Act.  (On a sidenote: nothing was more hilarious than watching the reaction of the progressive left in Madison while at school in the year 2000.  I still take comfort remembering the scenes of protest and disgust by out of touch professors, administrators, and brain-washed students)

I was living in Hawaii and working for large real estate developer in 2008 when the bottom fell out from our economy.  I saw firsthand the destruction of private wealth and the effect on markets, employers, and employees.  Nearly our entire staff was laid off within a year and the project significantly scaled down.  The Bush administration as well as nearly all of Congress, Democrats and Republicans alike, fear-mongered the country into bailing out the very banks who so foolishly started the mess in the first place.  I knew that this move was wrong, no matter how much they tried to scare us into believing it was the only way out of a full-blown recession.  The markets needed to correct on their own instead of simply delaying the inevitable sovereign debt crisis.  This last action of the Bush administration and the subsequent blunders of Obama were true turning points in my belief that a large and powerful federal government was an UNNECESSARY EVIL.  I finished up with the  real estate project in July of 2009 and headed back to California.

My funemployment began with a six week trip to Europe to figure out what to do next.  As I hiked through the Alps for two weeks, meeting up with a group of Brits, I was able to engage in many interesting political discussions.  Everyone I talked to was appalled and confused when I told them about Obama’s disingenuous plan to unite.  The Brits, Dutch, Italians, Israelis, Australians, and many others simply could not believe that the world savior was indeed a hoax.  I learned a lot about the politics of other countries during these conversations.  I realized that although our political system is severely flawed today, it was nowhere near the shape of many of the other European-socialist governments.  This was the first time in my life that I truly learned to appreciate the freedoms and civil rights that we in America often take for granted.

Upon the conclusion of my trek in Switzerland, I knew that my immediate destiny would be to tell the story of the amazing liberties that we possess as Americans and, more importantly, what we need to do in order to preserve them.  I dedicated much of the rest of my trip through Italy, France, and Spain to furthering this goal.  By the end of the trip I was convinced that I needed to help the most vulnerable generation maintain its liberty.  The young generation of America faces a long road of unsustainable debt and government takeovers of our once (long ago) free markets, compounding the danger of losing the inalienable rights that we all possess.

Immediately upon return from my trip, I had breakfast with Tim in Ocean Beach.  I remember very clearly the whole meal because I was nervous that he would not think it was a good idea.  There was no way I could take on this project by myself and I needed another liberty-minded, smart person to work with.  Since we were both unemployed and shared the same values, I knew it would work.

After my pitch about the project, emphasizing the part about the uniqueness of the idea- no young person had written a book about the fate of their generation.  Trust me, we searched Amazon for hours to be sure!  Tim immediately liked the idea and agreed that we should continue down the path.  The concept blossomed since that day in October 2009 and by late November, after much research and discussion, we were on our way toward co-authoring a book!