Uncle Sam's Plantation: How Big Government Enslaves America's Poor and What We Can Do about It

Yes, I have read this book and am recommending it to all on both sides of the debate. In fact this is my Christmas list for 2005. Ms. Paker left no stone unturned and didn't let anyone off the hook. This book doesn't blame folks, it corrects them. It's about turning a bad pass into a bright future, about less government and more faith. This book calls it like it is, it names names and places shame where it belongs, on the greatest slave masters Uncle Sam and his little mouth pieces who call themselves activist. Read this book and learn the truth about affrimative action, multiculturalism, the faith base initiative, school choice, the importance of the family unit, social security, the Supreme Court, Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson, and anything else that you may thing of that makes up the life of the poor. There is hope for the poor and this book is a great start for answers. Copies of this book should be in every community center and school (fat chance). I'm proud to be African-America and of a conservative mind set. Thanks Ms. Parker you're a real "Star".

Thank God that someone is able to stand up in this nation and address the problems that are facing African American people. It is a shame that AA people cannot face the truth about their plights. I too was once a welfare mother. I did not abuse or misuse the welfare system but I did find that I was growing lazy after a period of time. Most of my problem was a lack of confidence and a personal embarassment to have to receive a hand-out (even temporarily) from the government, especially when I knew I was a working person. But bad things do happen to good people--even loss of employment. The one thing I did discover though, was that I didn't have to keep receiving a government handout. When I realized what my situation was doing to my daughter--and with the help of the Lord--I pulled myself up and out. I took advantage of the many services that were offered to me to help me regain my self-esteem, my confidence, and my since of self-worth as a person, and went back to work (these are "some" of the things that being on welfare will help to strip you of). I was so very glad when welfare was no longer a part of my life. Welfare is no life at all. You always have somebody breathing down your neck, in your business because they feel they have a right to be, and controlling what you do, what you have and what you get. I have been off of welfare for a number of years now and I'm very happy about it. I applaud Miss Parker for telling her story, and telling it truthfully and honestly. Welfare--and any government handout that enslaves a person--is not the answer for any people. It is only supposed to be a temporary means of assistance until a person can get back on their feet, regroup, and get back to being independent and self-sufficient again. There is absolutely no advancement of life, no change of life, no improving the qualilty of one's life, on welfare. I truly believe it was never designed to be. To all the liberals (especially some Democrats) who believe big government and government handouts is the answer to help impoverished, disenfranchised people, my word to you is you are wrong, dead wrong. All you want to do is keep yourselves in the spotlight as the "poor people's self-proclaimed saviors" when all you're doing is keeping poor people poor and enslaved. You are promoters and proponents of poverty, hatred and racism. Why? Because it brings you fame and the people look up to you all as some sort of god. Many of you are nothing more than pimps, as Miss Parker's first book states ("Pimps, Whores and Welfare Brats"), and glorified opportunists. You act as if you've come to help when you've really come to get media coverage and fame for your own selfish agendas, at the expense of a very needy, less-fortunate group of people. May God have mercy on your souls. Thank you, Miss Parker, for your candor and truth. Keep speaking out to a people who need to hear what you have to say. Hopefully, enough will hear and heed, and se

Few people will admit how analogous government dependence is to living on a plantation. Star Parker, once enslaved by "Big Government", is now unshackled and ready to expose her former master in her new book, Uncle Sam's Plantation: How Big Government Enslaves America's Poor and What We Can Do About It. She openly takes on "Uncle Sam" for keeping millions trapped in poverty. A former "welfare queen" and current president and founder of the Coalition for Urban Renewal and Education (CURE), Parker courageously analyzes Big Government's system of dependency. She encourages those living on handouts to break the chains of poverty and find purpose and meaning in their lives. In a follow-up to her first book, Pimps, Whores and Welfare Brats, where she handed down a stinging indictment against liberal politicians and the black leaders they exploit, Parker hits the mark once again in Uncle Sam's Plantation. "Uncle Sam has developed a sophisticated poverty plantation, operated by a federal government, overseen by bureaucrats, protected by the media elite, and financed by taxpayers." The author knows of what she speaks. Parker lived a reckless life; she was promiscuous, had four abortions, smoked pot and burglarized people's homes. One day while looking for "under the table" cash to supplement her welfare check, she was given a Bible instead. She was told that her lifestyle was unacceptable to God. Three years later, still on welfare, the pastor at her church preached to no one in particular, "What are you doing living on welfare?" At that moment, Parker says, she knew he was talking to her and felt a sense of personal responsibility for the choices she'd made. "Before the pastor could finish his sermon," Parker writes, "my heart was stirring with the desire to find real purpose and meaning for my life." The next day, she wrote her caseworker and asked that her name be taken off the welfare rolls. Parker began to wrest the chains of dependency and hopelessness and dared to dream.Parker's charges against the liberal establishment will move readers to challenge Big Government's plantation system. Tracing the shift in America's attitude from belief in strong families and hard work to the flawed idea that it's the government's role to solve social problems, the author contends that the Great Depression marked a turning point in the American conscience. After the stock market crashed, fear caused people to turn to the government for help in the face of the "dark side of capitalism." Looking to the government for solutions became acceptable. As increased racial tension and discrimination led blacks to demand civil rights, societal guilt over past wrongs in turn led to a lie still perpetuated today. "Social engineers of the late 1960s told Americans that black people could not take control over the poverty in their lives due to centuries of racism and segregation," Parker writes. The onus was now on society to "fix" poverty. Thirty-five years later, taxpayers are

Star Parker's recent book "Uncle Sam's Plantation..." isinformative, inspiring, and written with the experienceof someone who has been there. As a former bleeding heartliberal who was involved in a number of social servicesorganizations, it became obvious to me that many well intentionedprograms become a self perpetuating industry allowing 'dogooders' to play Lady Bountiful to people they obviouslyconsider too incompetent to run their own lives. The rewards go to those who exhibit self destructive behavior.The more self destructive the behavior the more programsexist as if throwing enough money and time will cure threegenerations of government dependence. Ms Parker spells itout clearly and effectively. I recommend this book to anyonewho feels that our welfare programs are going to create independent, self supporting citizens. Your eyes will beopened.Lisa N

It is no surprise that government attempts at social engineering have proven costly, counter-productive, and oftentimes disastrous. Look no further than the 1960's War on Poverty programs of the LBJ administration, which instead of "winning" the war on poverty, only served to exacerbate the plight of the poor, creating three generations of dependence, laziness, irresponsibility and psychological nihilism - a cycle that has only started to be undone with the Welfare Reform Act of 1996.But don't take my word for it. Just ask Star Parker, president and founder of the Coalition of Urban Renewal and Education (CURE) and self-proclaimed "former welfare queen." Picking up where she left off in her blisteringly honest memoir Pimps, Whores and Welfare Brats (Pocket Star, 1997), Parker takes big government to task in Uncle Sam's Plantation: How Big Government Enslaves America's Poor and What We Can Do About It (WND Books). If there is anyone who knows first hand the degradation and moral bankruptcy that comes with perennial dependence on "Uncle Sam," it's Ms. Parker - she lived it.The author lays out her own categorical definitions of poverty and recounts the hard lessons she learned as a welfare mother. In discussing how liberals have hijacked history and used the poor as pawns for political purposes, Parker describes the typical government safety net as simply a way of covering up the social pathologies associated with the bad choices of the underprivileged.Arguably the most harmful effects of massive government intervention have been the breakdown of the family unit. This is especially true in the black community, where according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services roughly 70% of black children are born out of wedlock. According to Parker, radical feminism has helped to produce this horrible state of affairs. The author shows in surgical detail how buying into the radical feminist party line (i.e. that men are "the enemy," marriage is "prostitution and slavery in a different form," and "money is power") has not only contributed to high rates of illegitimacy and abortion in the black community, but has also rendered many black women "unpaid whores and old maids." The last third of Uncle Sam's Plantation outlines the author's proposed solutions on weaning the poor off of government dependence and liberal mind control. From analyzing the wastefulness of our current tax system and the counter-productive economic effects of minimum wage and rent control laws, to outlining how Social Security can (and should) be privatized to benefit all those who pay into it, the author displays erudition far beyond the average layperson and an iron-clad compassion born out of the experience of a woman who has indeed "been there, done that." Star Parker's life is a shining example that individual freedom and self-reliance are indeed possible for those who desire and are willing to work for it. A person's income does not determine his/her outcome