The Best-Laid Plans: How Government Planning Harms Your Quality of Life, Your Pocketbook, and Your Future

The Best-Laid Plans: How Government Planning Harms Your Quality of Life, Your Pocketbook, and Your Future
Randal O'Toole | 2007-09-25 00:00:00 | Cato Institute | 416 | Law
Drawing on 30 years of experience reviewing hundreds of government plans, Randal O'Toole shows that, thanks to government planners, American cities are choked with congestion, major American housing markets have become unaf-fordable, and the cost of government infrastructure is spiraling out of control. The book makes the case for repeal of federal planning laws and closure of gov-ernment planning offices. Every American who worries about the insidious growth of the Nanny State must read this book.
Reviews
I was not impressed by this book. The first chapter, about forestry planning, was impressive enough, since O'Toole has spent so much of his career in that area. It was enlightening to how tax money can be wasted.



With the next chapter on urban planning, he attacks a straw man. He asserts that all urban planners claim that suburbs cause obesity. Being pretty well-read in contemporary planning, I would say that no planner actually believes that. Everyone knows that many factors go into the high obesity rates in America.



That said, he shouldn't be looking at the contemporary fads of urban planning to attack urban planning, he should be looking at the patterns planners tend to follow, and the history of planning.



Throughout the book, he uses many "if-then" statements that are fallacies. He writes, "If sprawl does not cause obesity, there is no justification for Smart Growth America's call to rebuild the suburbs" (64). He jumps to conclusions like this constantly, ignoring important counter-examples, and it weakens his argument.



This is more like libertarian propaganda than a serious and critical look at planning. It's too bad--he really seems to know a lot.
Reviews
Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it. This book lays out a solid argument why centralized planning does not work. O'Toole argues that smaller units of control in everything from forestry to zoning, are usually more effective, accountable, adaptable, and accurate. Planning is simple one area where you should not cut out the middleman. He gives practical examples and presents the associated cost of bad planning. He also predicted the current housing crisis and several of its causes long before the rest of us saw it comming. You need to hear what this man has to say.
Reviews
Gets a little repetitious, but the patterns he's pointing out are there. This is a great way for folks to understand the concept of unintended consequences in heavy handed planning. Real case studies of how things work out, not just the hoped for results (which is usually all we ever hear) show what really happens and how reall harm can result from government planning. With the last 8 years of top-down attempts to manage every aspect of our lives, Best Laid Plans is a new way to look at problems and find solutions free of the political pitfalls and elitist ideologies sp often found in planning depts.
Reviews
Eye opening to what local government is doing to us, I have seen this first hand.
Reviews
Government planners claim to know all, from how individuals should be living their lives to how far to live from work and how much money to make, population distribution and more. THE BEST-LAID PLANS: HOW GOVERNMENT PLANNING HARMS YOUR QUALITY OF LIFE, YOUR POCKETBOOK, AND YOUR FUTURE refutes these claims, offering damning evidence on government planning gone awry - and what to do about it. Theory blends with case studies to create an analysis perfect for college-level classroom debate, making THE BEST-LAID PLANS a top pick for any college-level political science or American history collection.



Diane C. Donovan

California Bookwatch

Download this book!

Free Ebooks Download