America is deeply in trouble, with high unemployment and huge national debt often cited as the top two problems. But what is the root cause for these problems? To me, here are the two root causes: 1)The rise of BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa), led by China, as economic competitors to America. 2)The incompetence of America's political system, especially when compared with China's. Cause 1) was inevitable, but cause 2) was not. How, then, can we make America's political system more competitive? Introducing strict term-limits for the top political offices, with the American Presidency being one-term (e.g. six years), plus more! Overall, I believe I have the most accurate diagnosis for America, as well as the best solution. To sell them, I have been writing and publishing my ideas for more than four years. Very significantly, I have met with several top politicians for discussion. The photo below shows one example (photo omitted here). Most importantly, I have been a weekly columnist at GEI (Global Economic Intersection) since May 2011, elaborating my ideas from various angles to a wide variety of readers. It's time to further expound on it by writing a book for one simple reason: the 2012 U.S. election is over, thus concluding my first phase of "saving America". This book is composed of 80 of my published articles, logically organized into a coherent whole in 12 parts as follows: 1)America: diagnosis and solution 2)What is an ideal government? 3)America: an overview 4)China: an overview 5)Democracy 6)China: in some depth 7)America: in great depth and breadth 8)America and China 9)America's foreign policy 10)Six democracy-communism similarities 11)Famous quotes and interpretations 12)My personal life Each part contains several chapters. Each chapter is an article previously published, with some [significant] re-writing to fit it in context. Some articles have their original publication dates attached, with the events at the time as the background. Part 1 defines the goal of this book. It contains two chapters as the diagnosis and solution for America, respectively. Part 2 goes beyond America. It contains two chapters, addressing two vast subjects: "towards an ideal form of government" and "built to last: structure and conscience," respectively. The remaining 10 parts are supporting materials for Parts 1 and 2. This paperback is different from its sister ebook in several ways as follows: 1)Most of the color images in the ebook have been removed. 2)Like the ebook, there is not a bibliography at the end of this book. Since all the references are available on-line, I kept them in the form of hyperlinks. A reader can easily find them with a simple Google search by the title. 3)As in the ebook, the table of contents appears right after this page, with the hyperlinks being removed, obviously. Here is a quote: "you cannot open a book without learning something." Who said it? Confucius! Here is an interpretation of the comments by the book reviewers: "you cannot open a good book without learning a lot of good stuff!" Now, just sit back and enjoy the book ... Some kind words from a fan ... "I am 84 years old and I have been in the scale business since 1949. My tie with China goes way back to 1945, when I, serving in the U.S. Navy, stationed in China for a few months. It's amazing for me to see the changes in China in recent years. It's even more amazing for me to know Frank Li, a Chinese-American, who writes so well about American politics that I print out all his writings, save them in a folder, and read them over and over. What a modern-day Thomas Jefferson!" --- Lee Offield, Pacific Scales (Clackamas, Oregon), December 2010
About the Author: Frank (Xiaofeng) Li is the Founder and President of W.E.I. (West-East International), a Chicago-based import & export company. Frank was born in Hangzhou, China, in 1959, and grew up in the horrible days of the Cultural Revolution. He was a hopeless teenager when China re-opened its universities in 1977, after closing them for more than a decade! He was lucky enough to have made into Class 77. Frank received his B.E. degree from Zhejiang University (China) in 1982, M.E. from the University of Tokyo in 1985, and Ph.D. from Vanderbilt University in 1988, all in Electrical Engineering. He worked for several companies all over the world until 2005, when he founded his own company W.E.I. Today, W.E.I. is a leader in the scale industry not only in products & services, but also in thought & action. Frank started writing about business and politics in 2008. Since May 2011, he has been a weekly columnist at Global Economic Intersection. He writes extensively and uniquely about American politics, for which he has been called a "modern-day Thomas Jefferson."