Legacy of the Third Way

This review of  Legacy of the Third Way was requested by the author, Abdul Kundi , in the middle of February.  It took me a little over two weeks to read this book.  It wasn't the book.  It's the slow reading speed that has plagued me in 2024.  I keep on hoping that I'll be able to read more.  Yet I am managing to review this book well before its expected publication date on March 31.  So I'm doing better than I thought.

                                          

Legacy of the Third Way is a near future science fiction novel. Sher Shah, the protagonist, is an American with a Punjabi heritage. He was born in 2020.  This novel is partly an account of Sher's life, and partly an account of the development of  a fictional political party that was established to be a home for those who are disillusioned with the two mainstream political parties in the United States.

Sher eventually entered politics, but he worked as a math instructor in a prison before he started his political career.  This allowed for the introduction of an important character who was an ex-convict.  He had been one of Sher's math students. I liked the fact that the rights of the formerly imprisoned are a topic that's explored in Legacy of the Third Way.

Since this book centrally deals with a political campaign, funding is a significant concern.  By 2050, this future society has coins, but no paper currency. This is only 26 years from now.  The dollar of our contemporary world no longer existed. The currency of Legacy of the Third Way's era has no backing.  The dollar of our era is supposed to be backed by the gold in Fort Knox.

 Agreeing to have a currency without backing in less than thirty years may seem like a radical change in a relatively brief time frame, but author Kundi provides what may be a credible explanation for the abolition of paper currency.  I don't know enough about finances to be sure.

We are told that deficit spending no longer existed, but there is a huge deficit that was created by our past history of deficit spending. One way to get rid of that deficit would be ginormous raises in taxes. Taxes are the source of government income. In that scenario, individuals and companies would go bankrupt because they couldn't afford to pay their taxes. 

The other way to get rid of the deficit is to wipe the slate clean and pretend there is no longer any deficit.  Yet if we wanted to avoid creating a new deficit, many government programs could no longer exist.  There probably wouldn't be any social security or medicare.   Few people could afford to retire without social security, and the health care crisis would be much worse without medicare.  

Could the budget be balanced with major cuts in defense spending?   I sincerely doubt that would even be considered. The Pentagon seems to be sacrosanct.

 How could poor people buy food if the government stopped issuing food stamps because the food stamp program no longer existed?

 There are so many government services that the majority of the people rely on.  The economy would collapse if all these services had to be paid for with the tax funds that the government received.

Sher makes references to meetings in cyberspace rather than meeting face to face.  This is so convenient, but impoverished people with no computers would have to go elsewhere to get free online access--such as a public library.  If all meetings were online, there would be no way for free services to accommodate them all.

There is a lack of finality in the resolution of this book.  So there may be a sequel.  I can't be certain.   

I liked Sher.  I thought he had his heart in the right place.  I decided to give this book a B+.