Book Review: “The Last American Martyr” By Tom Winton

194 pages
Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform (April 15, 2012)

Tom Winton has written another great novel that kept me riveted, “The Last American Martyr.” His main character, Tom Soles, has written a book, “Enough is Enough,” that excoriates the stock market and Capitalism. Tom Soles writes about the hardship and destruction of the American middle-class. You know the rant: the average working guy follows all the rules and yet gets screwed by the system. “Enough is Enough” hits a chord with down and outers, but incites the “haves” to murder. Tom Soles and his wife Elaina flee from those wishing them harm. Tom Soles sets up an ethical dilemma and you must read the book to see if he passes his own test.

This is my third review of a Tom Winton book, so you know I like his writing. I have one criticism of his philosophy. He ascribes to the theory that “Every worker in this country, and all others, should be paid enough to take care of themselves and their families before any corporate profits are taken.” First of all profits are not “taken,” they are earned. Corporate products compete with other products for market share. All things being equal, the lowest price wins. That’s why corporations move production off shore where labor is cheaper. Mexican or Chinese labor is at least a tenth of the American labor. The government also taxes domestic corporations 35%. The rate of taxation off shore is much lower.

Secondly, this idea that workers should be paid enough is nuts! You have free choice to work where you want and your labor competes with other workers. If the corporations don’t do it then, I assume, the government should do it. Well, I hate to break it to you but government already does it. Recently, we learned that a women, availing herself of all government entitlements, will make more than if she worked. We have food stamps, unemployment insurance, government subsidized housing, government subsidized school meals, government subsidized mortgages, and college loans. We also have the bottom 50% of Americans paying no Federal taxes and the top 10% of Americans paying over 50% of Federal taxes, yet Obama thinks they aren’t paying their fair share. Tom Winton has set up a class conflict to criticize and his main character is feeling the heat. Winton should ascribe all the woes of Americans to the government. The writer of “Enough is Enough” would then have inspired a movement to whittle the government down to size.

I know what Tom Winton is getting at; there’s a huge gap between the rich and poor in this country. We see it between the C level execs and their workers, between politicians and citizens, between professional athletes and the fans, etc. Criticize the government! It’s the government since the passage of the Federal Reserve that has devalued all but 4 cents of the U.S. Dollar since 1913. It’s the government that bails out failing companies and banks and forces citizens to pay for it. It’s the government through the IRS that enforces over 72,000 pages of tax law. It’s the government that regulates every facet of American life. It’s the government that keeps interest rates low by buying $85 billion worth of bonds every month. Those low interest rates can’t provide retirement income anymore. It’s the government that is making the stock market rise. It’s the government that is trying to inflate the economy, and we all know that inflation is just another tax; a tax that the rich can profit from and the poor can’t. And you know what will happen when the FED gets inflation going? Why they will raise interest rates enough to throw the economy into a recession, which will result in layoffs of American workers.

My message to readers: read the book for the writing and identify with the hardships that we are all going through. My message to Tom Winton is spend some time criticizing the government. You will have a hell of a book and you may even get audited by the IRS.