Review: The Fifth Risk


Book cover to The Fifth Risk by Michael Lewis
The Fifth Risk by Michael Lewis
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Michael Lewis (of Moneyball fame) takes readers on a tour of government that you'll never find on the news or even presented by government itself--not because it's a malicious or abusive aspect but it's often essential and important parts of government, who are also banned from sharing out the amazing work that they do. Lewis is searching for the different ways in which long-standing government institutions are on a precipice of decay, self-destruction, and funding shortages. This foreboding risks that jeopardize our health, infrastructure, and ability to function day to day are threatened because of a long tradition by the Right to defund government, assume much of tax dollars are wasted, abused, or mismanaged, and to believe that the market will always do better. Lewis's lens for exploring this is the transition from Obama to Trump and how unprepared Trump was to fill hundreds of vacant positions in key parts of government that overlook everything from weather to contamination sites to security measures. The result is a book that may have readers up at night wondering about when the lights will go out (literally). At the book's core is Lewis's argument that there are many important and complex things that government has invested in that have made our lives better and for which we would be dead without; rarely are they allowed to speak about these but meanwhile, there is a Republican noise machine that just wants citizens to believe that it is a colossal waste of time and money. And while some may think Lewis is being heavy-handed, it should be noted that one of the people that promotes as someone doing good is Chris Christie; and anyone that's giving Chris Christie a semblance of respect is playing fair. Ultimately, this is the book that conservatives (and libertarians for that matter) need to read and think about before they go off on their next tirade to defund or drastically diminish government. Lewis gives us a close-up view of the many things that government is doing that the private industries would not do--because it's not profitable, even if it saves millions of lives.

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