What is the main message of The Way Back?

The main message of The Way Back is a solution for America's political paralysis.

How long does it take to read The Way Back?

The reading time for The Way Back varies. However, the Blinkist summary can be read in just 15 minutes.

Who is the author of The Way Back?

The author of The Way Back is F.H. Buckley.

Society & Culture

The Way Back Book Summary - The Way Back Book explained in key points

Listen to the Intro

00:00

The Way Back summary

Name: The Way Back
Author: F.H. Buckley

F.H. Buckley

Restoring the Promise of America

18 mins

Brief summary

The Way Back by F.H. Buckley explores the decline of the American middle class over the past few decades and offers policy prescriptions to reverse the trend, including immigration reform and stronger labor laws.

Topics

US Economics

Table of Contents

The Way Back
Summary of 8 key ideas

Audio & text in the Blinkist app

Key idea 1 of 8

What’s in it for me? Restore the American dream!

We all know about the American dream – the idea that hard work and moral conduct are enough to ensure a good life, or even to bring great success. Arguably, this desire for social and economic mobility is what has driven American citizens to keep on striving, which, in turn, has resulted in the great wealth and power of the United States.

Today, however, the American dream is an empty one. If you are born poor, you will stay poor no matter how hard you try, and if you’re born rich, you will stay rich regardless of how poorly you perform. The system is rigged. And that’s not all. American society also punishes the people who try to live the American dream. Those who work hard to achieve something great are usually thwarted by the current system. So how can we find a way back?

In these blinks, you’ll find out

how getting US school results up to Canadian levels would solve the US debt crisis;
what impact having certain license requirements for jobs would have; and
how the American judicial system negatively impacts social mobility.

America’s poor public education system perpetuates social inequality at high economic cost.

Here’s a straightforward question: If a boat were traveling from England to the Philippines via the Suez Canal, what are the names of each body of water it would pass through along the way? Today, most adults would be hard-pressed to come up with an answer, but in 1912 it was something an eighth-grade student in the United States was expected to know.

Since then, the standards of American public education have drastically declined, and not just in geography: math skills and literacy rates have plummeted in the United States while those of other countries have improved.

According to the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), the United States, one of 65 countries under review, fell from 25th to 31st place in mathematics between 2009 and 2015.

This is extremely important since the quality of a nation’s public education is directly related to its social mobility.

In 2011, a study by Stanford University economist Eric Hanushek found a near perfect correlation between education and social advancement: Children who experience inequality in their education grow up to experience social inequality in the professional world.

Out of all the countries in Hanushek’s study, America was most guilty of perpetuating inequality, tending to provide the best education to the richest people and an inferior education to the poor.

A poor public-education system like this isn’t a problem that only affects the poor, either; it also comes at a high economic cost.

When a country fails to produce educated workers with the right skill levels, the entire economy suffers.

In 2013, Hanushek followed up with another study that showed how, by raising public school standards to match Canada’s, the United States could balance out its current debt crisis. And if that weren’t incentive enough, higher education standards could also result in every US worker receiving an average pay increase of 20 percent.

As it stands now, private schools help the economy by producing a few great scientists. But the majority of the population receives a significantly inferior education, which is little help to them or to the economy.

America’s school admission systems – both wealth- and merit-based – favor the rich.

A look at higher education paints a pretty clear picture: a good education in America is reserved for those who can afford it.

In the United States, rich families can put their children on a fast track to a prestigious college by making financial donations to that college.

Sadly, this system can result in many undeserving students being admitted, a practice that Daniel Golden, a writer and Harvard alumnus, condemns in his book, The Price of Admission. Golden lists many famous children with poor grades who would never have been admitted if not for their parents’ money.

Among these unqualified students are Albert Gore III, who was granted admission to Harvard, and Harrison Frist, who got into Princeton with the help of his father, a US Senator. George W. Bush and John Kerry both had high-school grades that failed to meet the requirements of the elite universities they attended.

But even if colleges based admission strictly on standardized tests, such as the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT), the rich would still have an unfair advantage due to the poor public-education system.

By looking at the results of SAT scores and comparing them to the income of the student’s family, you can see that those who could afford a private education fared better:

Children from low-income families that earn less than $20,000 scored an average of 1,326 out of a possible 2,400. Meanwhile, middle-class families earning less than $60,000 rise to an average score of 1,461. And upper-class families earning over $200,000 hit an average of 1,714.

As you can see, it’s hard to deny that the US education system strongly favors the rich. And this doesn’t even take into account the cost of college and the fact that, even if children from low-income families were accepted to a prestigious school, most would be unable to afford the tuition and fees.

The American immigration system is not picky enough and costs the country a lot of money.

True, America is a nation founded and built by immigrants. But, as they stand today, America’s immigration policies are in need of repair.

The current US immigration system is not built to get the best out of migrants.

Two-thirds of America’s immigrant population are accepted based on the family preference policy, which admits people with family already in the United States without considering their level of education.

Some believe the Canadian immigration system would be a better model to follow.

Canada evaluates immigrants using a point system that rates their language skills, work experience and education. Those with a high score are considered skilled workers and are likelier to be admitted, which has led to Canada having two-thirds of its immigrants classified as skilled workers.

Without a policy similar to this, many unqualified immigrants will continue to enter the United States, and the economy will continue to suffer.

It’s no secret that immigrants earn far less than American-born citizens: In 2006, sociologist George Borjas found that US immigrants earn 20 percent less than non-immigrants and that this discrepancy diminishes by 50 percent every generation. So, it would take an immigrant family four generations to finally close the gap.

Meanwhile, by earning less, they have less money to spend and therefore also contribute less to the US economy.

In contrast, it only takes two generations for Canadian immigrants to catch up with Canadian-born citizens.

Furthermore, the Canadian immigration system takes less time to process its applicants, which gives more time for immigrants to settle down and establish a permanent residence. US immigrants often wait years to know whether their application has been approved, which stalls their search for steady work or continuing education.

Requiring unnecessary licenses cripples the economy and market competitiveness.

So far, we’ve looked at the faultiness of America’s education and immigration systems. Both are working against the best interests of the United States. But there’s another threat to the economy: the licensing system for US businesses.

Take the ridiculous licensing requirements needed to teach yoga. As yoga became more popular in the United States, states like Virginia began introducing licensure requirements for teachers. As a result, anyone hoping to teach yoga had to work through a mountain of paperwork and pay a $2,500 fee. On top of that, to meet the requirements, many had to take continuing-education courses that added up to thousands of dollars more in fees.

These licensing requirements are overseen by the State Council for Higher Education, which normally takes care of matters involving universities and colleges. But now they’re also in the strange position of evaluating how well someone teaches a yoga pose. Arguably, such evaluations could safely be left in the hands of the yoga community.

Enforcing these restrictive licensing requirements only hurts the economy by deterring entrepreneurs who have the initiative but lack the money and resources to jump through all the hoops.

Unfortunately, more and more businesses are being subjected to licensure requirements and it’s continuing to hurt their chances of being competitive in the open market.

It was only 20 years ago when one out of every 20 American workers needed to obtain a license for their job. Today, that number has jumped to one out of every three workers. As a result, you now need a license for almost all jobs, even if all you want to be is a Washington, D.C., tour guide.

And all these licenses aren’t necessarily there to ensure quality work is being done. Most of the new requirements come from a group of established insiders trying to beat back the competition.

To keep safe their positions as industry leaders, they erect these hurdles to deter people from entering the profession and challenging their status. And, of course, there’s the added financial benefit they receive from those who can afford to pay all the licensing fees.

The US tax code offers many loopholes to big corporations and their top executives.

If you’re an American hoping for a good education or harboring dreams of entrepreneurial success, then there’s one thing that’ll help you above all else: being rich. Furthermore, if you’re rich, then you’ll also reap the rewards of the federal tax system.

The US tax code is full of arcane details and loopholes that wealthy Americans and the richest corporations can exploit – a fact that continues to hurt the federal budget.

Between 1952 and 2009, corporate taxes, which once made up 32 percent of the government’s overall tax revenue, fell to just nine percent.

With a good tax advisor who knows which loopholes to take advantage of, a wealthy company can even get by without paying any taxes at all.

In 2010, General Electric earned $14.2 billion, yet it paid absolutely nothing in taxes. First of all, it sheltered money in offshore accounts, but, more importantly, it invested in deductible causes such as renewable energy, low-income housing and research.

And just like their companies, corporate executives also take advantage of the different ways the tax code can be exploited.

Many of them have an apparent salary of under one million dollars; they point to this as a way of avoiding public scrutiny. Meanwhile, they earn more significant sums through performance bonuses and stock options, which are taxed at much lower rates.

Remarkably, corporations can even use the salaries they pay to executives as a tax deduction, which is a perfect example of how the federal tax system is set up to help the rich stay rich.

US criminal law makes arbitrary imprisonment easy, and businesses are often raided without reason.

Have you broken a law today? If you really think about it, how sure can you be?

There are a lot of random and seemingly arbitrary laws in the US legal system; accidentally breaking one of them may be easier than you think.

Take Krister Evertson, for example. He was arrested in Alaska while working on a way to create clean-energy fuel cells. But he ran into trouble when he mailed a package of sodium without including the required sticker that ensures such packages get shipped by ground transportation.

Believe it or not, this is a federal crime and Evertson was taken to criminal court where the jury saw that he’d made an honest mistake and acquitted him.

But, unfortunately, it didn’t end there: The federal agents found another obscure law to arrest Evertson once again.

This time, he was charged with violating federal law by not having his sodium properly stored while he was under arrest for the first charge. Ultimately, Evertson was sentenced to two years in prison for the abandonment of hazardous waste.

Similar legal technicalities in the United States can lead to small businesses being unjustly raided by inspection agents.

In 2010, the Florida Department of Business Regulation sent two licensing inspectors to an Orlando barbershop where they found that everything was in order and that the business was in compliance.

However, the inspectors returned two days later, this time with eight armed policemen. Even though their only jurisdiction was licensure requirements, they searched the entire premises and told the barbers that there were so many federal regulations that they were bound to be breaking one of them.

The case eventually went to court, where the inspectors and police were reprimanded by the judge and warned against performing illegal searches.

US criminal law gives prosecutors great power, which they use against corporations.

As we saw in the previous blink, sometimes the judicial system helps keep order and sometimes it sends someone to jail for a simple mistake.

Many of the problems with this system stem from prosecutors being given far too much power.

US criminal cases often begin with a grand jury, which is made up of 12 to 23 people who are left with a prosecuting attorney behind closed doors. The prosecutor can then make their case to the jurors, unobserved by a judge or defense attorney – in other words, unburdened by counterarguments or counterevidence.

The prosecutor is also free to present any evidence that might convince the jury of a guilty verdict. This can include testimony from witnesses, including whoever’s being investigated as well as unsubstantiated rumours and hearsay. And at no point do they need to tell the witnesses what the case is actually about.

Grand jury proceedings can last for years and they almost always end in the prosecution’s favor, and with damage done to the accused’s reputation.

Prosecutors are well aware of the power a grand jury can give them and they use it to gun down corporations.

In a 2008 study of legal systems around the world, scholar Edward Diskant found that no other developed country files criminal charges against corporations as often as the United States.

And when charges are brought, the defendants usually make a large cash settlement rather than have their reputations ruined and see their business destroyed in a court battle.

One of the most high profile cases occurred in 2002, when charges were brought against the energy corporation Enron. The company rightfully went bankrupt due to their fraudulent practices, but the prosecutors didn’t stop there.

They also went after Arthur Anderson, Enron’s accounting firm, which had shredded some evidence of Enron’s wrongdoing. For this, the accounting business was brought before a grand jury and, in the end, 28,000 employees were put out of work.

US prosecutors even target the rich and famous and are not afraid of bending the rules when they do.

Arbitrary laws and the power of prosecutors recently came together in a remarkable case that shows just how corrupt things can get.

In 1999, Martha Stewart had built her own empire around cooking, decorating and homemaking. Her magazine, Martha Stewart Living, was selling two million copies annually and she was all over television, being celebrated as one of the first women in the United States to become a self-made billionaire.

However, even though she was loved by millions, prosecutors were merciless when Stewart’s name came up in a case against ImClone Pharmaceuticals.

It turned out that the CEO of ImClone was a friend of Stewart's and had called her to inform her that he was selling many of his shares in the company and that she might do the same, which she did.

Stewart didn’t break any laws, but when she was interviewed by federal prosecutors without a lawyer, she made a mistake and gave a false story to protect her friend. Now, lying to a federal agent is indeed a crime and the prosecutors sent her to prison for five months.

This just goes to show that even celebrities aren’t immune to the broken legal system in the United States.

In other cases, prosecutors will even bend the rules to send certain businessmen to jail.

Michael Milken was a superstar on Wall Street when he helped start a whole new way of doing business by getting people to invest in portfolios that contained several unconnected high-risk stocks. It started the high-yield bond market of the 1980s, and though the overall risk wasn’t bigger than a standard investment, the returns were much, much bigger.

With the system Milken helped create, the US economy soared, but the prosecutors had a different point of view when they put him before a grand jury. To make his strategy illegal, they created new rules for stockbrokers. Under these new laws, Milken was found guilty of a remarkable 98 counts of racketeering and fraud, getting fined $600 million and sentenced to two years in prison.

We need to protect free enterprise, rework the legal system and rethink the entire education system. Do that, and America will be back on track.

Want more?
Read or listen to the key ideas
from 7,500+ titles

Key ideas in The Way Back

More knowledge in less time

Read or listen

Get the key ideas from nonfiction bestsellers in minutes, not hours.

Find your next read

Get book lists curated by experts and personalized recommendations.

Shortcasts ^New

We’ve teamed up with podcast creators to bring you key insights from podcasts.

What is The Way Back about?

The Way Back (2016) offers an intriguing explanation of why the American dream is a long-lost concept. These blinks take a close look at the fundamental systems of the United States, from education to criminal justice, and reveal exactly how these systems have broken down and why they are in desperate need of repair.

The Way Back Review

The Way Back (2016) by F.H. Buckley is a thought-provoking exploration of how America can reclaim its greatness. Here's why this book is worth reading:

The book offers a fresh perspective on American politics, challenging conventional wisdom and proposing new solutions.
It provides insightful analysis on the decline of American institutions and offers practical steps towards revitalization.
With its engaging storytelling and well-researched arguments, the book manages to make complex political ideas accessible and captivating.

Best quote from The Way Back

While legacy college admissions perpetuate social immobility, so too do meritocratic admissions.

—F.H. Buckley

Who should read The Way Back?

Public school teachers looking for insight into the school system
Entrepreneurs fighting bureaucratic red tape
Students of sociology and economics

About the Author

F.H. Buckley is a Canadian writer who specializes in constitutional and contract law. A professor at George Mason University in Virginia, his writing has appeared in the Wall Street Journal and the National Post. His other books include The Once and Future King: The Rise of Crown Government in America and The Morality of Laughter.

Categories with The Way Back

Society & Culture

Book summaries like The Way Back

Good Energy

Casey Means

The Surprising Connection Between Metabolism and Limitless Health

18 min

4.2

Building a Second Brain

Tiago Forte

A Proven Method to Organize Your Digital Life and Unlock Your Creative Potential

19 min

4.5

Merchants of Doubt

Naomi Oreskes & Erik M. Conway

How a Handful of Scientists Obscured the Truth on Issues From Tobacco Smoke to Global Warming

18 min

3.8

Less Doing, More Living

Ari Meisel

Make Everything in Life Easier

Understanding the New Rules of Language

22 min

4.1

The Fine Art Of Small Talk

Debra Fine

How To Start a Conversation, Keep It Going, Build Networking Skills – and Leave a Positive Impression!

19 min

4.0

Time and How to Spend It

James Wallman

The 7 Rules for Richer, Happier Days

24 min

4.3

The ONE Thing

Gary Keller and Jay Papasan

The surprisingly simple truth behind extraordinary results

18 min

4.5

Nobody Wants to Read Your Sh*t

Steven Pressfield

Why That Is and What You Can Do About It

A Captivating Novel on Second Chances in the Early 19th Century.

A Vision for Change and the Future of America

Uncovering Hidden Manipulations That Erode Trust and Truth

A Fantasy Novel About the Choices That Lead to a Life Well-Lived

23 min

4.6

An Astronaut’s Guide to Life on Earth

Chris Hadfield

What Going to Space Taught Me About Ingenuity, Determination, and Being Prepared for Anything

How to See What Others Miss

Liberty and Equality as an Alternative to Utilitarianism

A Coming-of-Age Novel about True Love and Finding One's Place in Life

23 min

4.7

Artificial Intelligence & Generative AI for Beginners

Persuasive Copywriting

Andy Maslen

Cut Through the Noise and Communicate With Impact

18 min

4.3

Common Sense on Mutual Funds

John C. Bogle

New Imperatives for the Intelligent Investor

18 min

4.2

The Structure of Scientific Revolutions

Thomas S. Kuhn

A groundbreaking study in how science progresses

13 min

4.4

101 Essays That Will Change The Way You Think

Brianna Wiest

Philosophical Meditations That Will Change Your Life

A Brief History of Information Networks from the Stone Age to AI

21 min

4.3

What Does It All Mean?

Thomas Nagel

A Very Short Introduction to Philosophy

17 min

4.1

“You Just Need to Lose Weight”

Aubrey Gordon

And 19 Other Myths About Fat People

Collected works from the supreme theorist of the conscious

20 min

4.5

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

Robert Pirsig

An Inquiry into Values

What Artificial Intelligence Can Do, What It Can’t, and How to Tell the Difference

19 min

3.6

Words Can Change Your Brain

Andrew Newberg and Mark Robert Waldman

12 Conversation Strategies to Build Trust, Resolve Conflict, and Increase Intimacy

19 min

4.4

The End of Alzheimer's Program

Dale Bredesen

The First Protocol to Enhance Cognition and Reverse Decline at Any Age

The classic text that proves the power of positive thinking

8 min

4.2

How to Think Like Leonardo da Vinci

Michael J. Gelb

Seven Steps to Genius Every Day

19 min

4.6

Heal Your Gut, Save Your Brain

Partha Nandi

Five Pillars for Gut Health and Cognitive Optimization

Mimicry and Camouflage

16 min

The Mountain Is You

Brianna Wiest

Transforming Self-Sabotage Into Self-Mastery

16 min

4.6

The Education of Millionaires

Michael Ellsberg

Everything You Won't Learn in College About How to Be Successful

16 min

4.2

The Last of the Mohicans

James Fenimore Cooper

Struggle, Love, and Adventure Unfold

12 min

4.2

Feel Great, Lose Weight

Rangan Chatterjee

Long term, simple habits for lasting and sustainable weight loss

20 min

4.6

Psychedelics and Psychotherapy

Tim Read & Maria Papaspyrou

The Healing Potential of Expanded States

18 min

3.9

The Devil in the White City

Erik Larson

Murder, Magic and Madness at the Fair that Changed America

11 min

3.8

Dangerous Personalities

Joe Navarro

An FBI Profiler Shows You How to Identify and Protect Yourself from Harmful Personalities

How humanity fell in love with our feline companions

Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants

What Bugs, Burns, Prints, DNA, and More Tell Us About Crime

29 min

4.6

The Eight Master Lessons of Nature

Gary Ferguson

What Nature Teaches Us About Living Well in the World

24 min

4.5

Numbers Rule Your World

Kaiser Fung

The Hidden Influence of Probability and Statistics on Everything You Do

A Novel about IT, DevOps, and Helping Your Business Win

The Key to Earth’s Lost Civilization

Nuclear Weapons, the Damascus Accident, and the Illusion of Safety

27 min

4.8

Nutrition and Physical Degeneration

Weston A. Price

A Comparison of Primitive and Modern Diets and their Effects

17 min

4.2

People ❤️ Blinkist

Sven O.

It's highly addictive to get core insights on personally relevant topics without repetition or triviality. Added to that the apps ability to suggest kindred interests opens up a foundation of knowledge.

Thi Viet Quynh N.

Great app. Good selection of book summaries you can read or listen to while commuting. Instead of scrolling through your social media news feed, this is a much better way to spend your spare time in my opinion.

Jonathan A.

Life changing. The concept of being able to grasp a book's main point in such a short time truly opens multiple opportunities to grow every area of your life at a faster rate.

Renee D.

Great app. Addicting. Perfect for wait times, morning coffee, evening before bed. Extremely well written, thorough, easy to use.