Upside by Bradley R.E. Wright, PhD

Upside, by Bradley R.E. Wright, PhD is an optimistic book, that attempts to dispell the pessimism that many sketptics and doomsday predictions warn concerning timely issues conccerning the economy, morals, environment, health and politics.  Nevertheless I found this book not to be representative of the true state of many struggling Americans.  Basically, wright's pointsof view seemed to be somewhat biased in representing the upper middle class socio- economic American sector, to the exclusion of the struggling, ever growing  middle and lower socio- economic american classes.  For example, with unemployment- the statistic of 9.9 - 10% unemployment rate is totally innaccurate!  It does not reflect those individuals, who in despair, have completely given up the job search and dropped out of the job force.  A better indicator would be to use the employed to unemployed job ratio which indicates that about 40% and even more Americans aged 16 and over currently have no job!!!! Nor does his statistics or considerations include the under employed- those struggling to raise a family on minimum wage jobs and part time jobs that they must settle on do to a lack of other options.  Furthermore, because these individuals have part time jobs or low paying jobs, they do not qualify for govenment assistance, yet they can not afford private health insurance so they must go without  health insurance. To add further insult to injury is the injustice  that these struggling mid- low class workers must pay for welfare recipients to get free healthcare while they go without!. 

Therefore when he does  discuss the upper middle to the wealthy class, of course their health is better! Of course there is good news for those with suffiecient financial resources!! But as far as the silent majority- who can not affort preventative care, screening or maintanence medications- these are the ones with undiagnosed heart disease, diabetes and cancer- and these are the ones that suddenly drop dead at age 49 because they coult not afford health care! There is no good news for these individuals.  Of course, there is no doubt some Americans are prospering, but there still is a large majority that isn't.  For America to ignore this and pat itself on the back is just simply to ignore the problem and it isn't right.  This self serving book is sure to make those wealthy, carefree Americans in happy marriages to feel less guilt and to feel justified.  But there is a whole world out there that suffers and goes without its basic neccesities.  Sure, I agree wiuth Wright that the Earth most likely won't be detroyed by radiation due to a damaged ozone layer, but beyond that I feel his book is nothing more than false reassurance to make the upper classes feel justified. As a blogger I recieved this book from Bethany House publishers for the purpose of writing this review. http://my.barnesandnoble.com/communityportal/review.aspx?reviewid=1825243