Star Parkers book Uncle Sams Plantation: How Big Government Enslaves Americas Poor and What We Can Do About It, has been revised and updated. My main response after reading it is, Wow! This powerful book explains so many things Ive thought about: the different kinds of poverty; the effects of welfare on poor people; how family breakdown is a direct result of welfare programs and how it causes poverty; how the education system contributes to the problem rather than solving it; how tax schemes aimed at helping the poor reduce their opportunities; and how big government is part of the problem, not the solution. Uncle Sams Plantation is not a nice book. It doesnt gloss over the realities of many poor peoples lives. Instead, it shows how some of their endless difficulties are a result of government policies, ostensibly created to help the poor, that instead enslave them as effectively as plantation owners did in the past. The author, who made her way out of the slavery-inducing entitlement mindset and lifestyle when she became a Christian, applies her thoughts mainly to the poor. However, this mindset is slipping into mainstream thought throughout the western world. We, too, can be gradually lured onto a government plantation, rather than relying on God and living according to His will.This is not a practical book as in: do this, and then that, and then that. Rather, it encourages and empowers by pointing out issues we may not have realized and by showing that Christianity and Christian values, not guilt-induced big government compassion, is the solution.I highly recommend Uncle Sams Plantation. It is among the most important books Ive read in the last few years.

I am passing this book along, especially to those helping people in poverty, by sending them to the government.

Slavery is seen as an evil act that was forever abolished with the Thirteen Amendment. Star Parkers Uncle Sams Plantation (2010), however, suggests that slavery and the current American government are analogous. Parker demonstrates how governmental programs have eroded American values. She believes the US welfare system has caused many women, particularly African American women, to be more satisfied having children out-of-wedlock and collecting government assistance than marrying. In fact, since welfares creation, out-of-wedlock births have soared to 69 percent in the Black community. Moreover, studies have shown that children from single-parent households typically have less education, lower job outlooks, and thus are likely to suffer future financial problems. Furthermore, government oppression is not limited to single mothers. Inheritance Lawslaws requiring estates to be heavily taxed upon the owners deathmake it nearly impossible for lower and middle class families to leave money to their heirs. Parker goes on to address other topics including abortion, homosexuality, public education, healthcare and rent control.At some points, Parker oversimplifies issues. She explains how she was once a welfare queen, but was able to pursue an education and become successful. Parker encourages other women to do the same. Parker implies the process is simple: single mothers should refuse welfare and get a job. Many single mothers would disagree that becoming financially independent is this easy.Nevertheless, the majority of Parkers book is well-researched and informative. She does a great job portraying how big government is harming both small businesses and families. I highly recommend this book to anyone concerned with political issues affecting African Americans.I received this book free from Thomas Nelson Publishers as part of their book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review.

"Uncle Sam's Plantation: How Big Government Enslaves America's Poor and What We Can Do About It" by Star Parker is an interesting look into poverty and the welfare system in America. Parker draws on her own life story to include the reader on how the system is failing poor Americans. She believes that the current state of the system has enslaved many Americans into believing that dependence on the government is an American necessity and right, which should not be tampered with. Parker believes that a change in the American belief that our country was endowed with these rights by our Maker is part of the problem. She tackles the welfare system, education, healthcare, women's right, the family, religious intolerance against Christians, govenment control, civil rights, and the loss of our national pride. Admonishing leaders in the social media and social justice forum, she clearly states how these people are not a part of the solution, but part of the problem. Parker also exhorts the church for their role in allowing the liberal hijacking of America. With determination Parker hopes to help her readers discover how America has turned from her God, and embraced moral relativism instead of God's law and salvation, government control over individualism, and social justice over morality and values.Thomas Nelson Publishers provided this book for free as a part of BookSneeze.com book review blogger program.

This book takes an extremely unflinching look at: poverty in this country, the flaws in the current welfare system, and the steps the author believes we need to take to take the power away from the government, and put it back in the hands of the people in the form of personal responsibility. Having spent much of her life using and abusing the system herself, Ms Parker draws from her own experience, and recounts the freedom she experienced at turning her life around and no longer relying on government handouts.

She makes a strong plea for a return to personal responsibility, moral living, and old-fashioned family values. She also makes many compelling points about the problems with our current system, and sheds some light on what it would take to change it.

Unfortunately, whatever useful information is contained in the book - and I concede that it is indeed there - is eventually lost in what turns into a bitter diatribe against the liberal left. The author lost me about a third of the way in, and never really got me back. The tone of the book comes across as sarcastic and arrogant, to the point that I had a difficult time finishing it. I disagreed with her stance on a few big issues, but I disagreed more with her delivery. No matter where one's political beliefs lie, it gets exhausting reading a one-woman attack on, well, anyone and everyone who isn't a conservative Republican. I do not believe that any one group has the definitive answer (to this or any of our nation's problems), and I do not believe that slinging mud at anyone will ever truly further a cause.

If you're a fan of Rush Limbaugh or Sean Hannity (both of whom gave the book high praise), you will likely love this book. If you're not, you may well glean some good information from its pages, but you might want to tread with caution.

**I received this book for free from Thomas Nelson publishers as part of their BookSneeze program**