“If you're looking for answers as to what happened to my country, how did we get here, what do I do about it, and how do I change my life and my circumstances, there is a must-read book called Crisis of Responsibility: Our Cultural Addiction to Blame and How You Can Cure It. In business school, they don’t teach [Adam Smith’s] Theory of Moral Sentiments, but David’s book is really a new kind of moral sentiment. What we're going through right now is a reflection of what we have allowed ourselves to accept or become over a very long period of time. We have to fundamentally change for the system to change. It is really, really fascinating, and really well-written. Crisis of Responsibility is a must read.”
“Wait until you read what David has to say … David shows that the financial crisis was more complicated than just blaming Wall Street … It was the first time I had heard his narrative – it was exciting to learn something new – that the greed was across the board. He gets to the moral roots of America. American self-government within the gift of democracy is needed for the whole experiment to work - It is about the culture. It thrills me someone of David’s stature is writing about this. It is a blockbuster that gets to the core of our problems … This is genius, brilliant stuff.”
“It is refreshing to read a book by a conservative who by and large avoids the pratfalls so many other members of his tribe have succumbed to. A couple potshots at media elites, I am happy to countenance, as long as they are an amuse bouche portending more serious fare. And that fare does come, largely in the vision of a society in which we demand as much of ourselves as we do of our elected officials and corporate leaders.”
“The subtitle says it all, ‘Our Cultural Addiction to Blame and How You Can Cure It.’ Production is part of earned success. You have to produce something. It can be cars, it can be a radio show, a book, good financial advice for your clients. Find your joy in production, not consumption.”
“David Bahnsen is the son of the late Greg Bahnsen, who was a good friend of mine and a very brilliant philosopher-theologian. David’s field is different—economics and finance. But he shares his father’s deep insight into our culture and ability to analyze and critique it. David’s Crisis of Responsibility exposes one curse of modern society, our penchant for responding to every problem by blaming somebody for it, rather than taking responsibility ourselves to accomplish change. We need, he says, more respect for people of good character, who are concerned more for the society itself and less for their own advancement at someone else’s expense. His thesis is good economics and, I might add, good theology. I commend this book to readers in all fields, to all who seek an effective response to the corruption of modern culture.”
“One more thing that I like, there’s a good book out by David Bahnsen - it’s called Crisis of Responsibility. The book is essentially a treatise on why it is that Americans are avoiding their problems by pointing at one another and trying to cast responsibility for mistakes on one another. If we could get rid of that capacity to blame one another and take some responsibility for ourselves, we’d do a lot better in life. Check it out!”
“There are a lot of wise words in David Bahnsen’s new book, Crisis of Responsibility … This is self-help in the best sense of the term, and a message Americans really need to hear right now. Some sections reminded me of Tony Robbins, and I hope Bahnsen takes that as the praise it’s meant to be … When you look for scapegoats and excuses, you find scapegoats and excuses; when you look for opportunities, you find opportunities. Crisis of Responsibility is the kind of book you want to leave in public places so that random strangers will pick it up and be influenced by it.”
“I found Crisis of Responsibility a remarkable and urgent synthesis of the economic, social, and cultural afflictions of modern America. But I was also heartened by the commitment to solving these problems through common sense and a renewal of individual responsibility. I hope this book finds a large and appreciative audience. It deserves to.”
“Only when the great mass of people reawaken to their civic duties will they be able to wrest control of America from an elite that has shown its failure to lead again and again. David Bahnsen’s new book is the first step along this important path.”
“When will we put our fingers to better use than pointing them at each other or thrusting a middle one into the air? David Bahnsen shows us how to use our hands and brains to improve housing, education, labor markets, tax policy, and more.”
“David Bahnsen has written a bracing and incisive critique of our increasingly pervasive culture of victimization. He makes a compelling case that it’s still within our power, and absolutely necessary, that we help ourselves. You will enjoy and profit from this book.”
“There is a virtuous cycle between responsibility and prosperity, and David has tapped into this favorite message of Jack Kemp in a way we need today more than ever. The vicious cycle of deteriorating social structures and poverty can be replaced, and readers of this book will see the path forward for real growth—a virtuous, opportunity-oriented society.”
“Markets are living moral creatures, as David Bahnsen notes. The world has been waiting for someone from finance to address the moral aspect of the 2008 crisis. Dave ‘Moral Hazard’ Bahnsen delivers it.”
“In his thought-provoking, brilliant new book, David Bahnsen brings to light, in an easy to read style, the necessary components for building and maintaining a prosperous and moral society. Personal responsibility, opportunity, and limited government are cornerstones for success for all Americans. It is a must read.”
“In any debate, the one who controls the narrative wins the day, and David Bahnsen is about shifting the narrative on discussions related to doing well and good at the same time. Bahnsen has undertaken this herculean task in Crisis of Responsibility by combining his economic and financial acumen with his moral clarity in a manner that is neither didactic nor preachy. See if you don’t agree.”
“David has hit home on the key point that must drive a new era of prosperity: with greater opportunity comes greater responsibility. The next generation of climbers in an aspirational society deserve a better shake from the establishment, but ultimately, they must embrace all challenges with a dogged determination. David’s book says no to the blame game, and yes to the triumph of the human spirit.”
“We all look for paths for finances and economics to help us succeed and move ahead in life. David Bahnsen has targeted the best possible stance toward this, which is to take responsibility for one’s actions, starting at the individual level. He also provides a well-thought-out framework of specific suggestions to get this done. Highly recommended.”
“David Bahnsen outlines cultural, economic, and political remedies for an ailing America of all classes. His often autobiographical message is that our fate still rests in our own hands. We are not pawns of global determinism, but with a few basic collective reforms and a return to individual self-reliance instead of our current self-obsessions, we can rebuild a prosperous, fair, and dynamic American culture and civilization. An outsider/insider message of hope and renewal that is now as rare as it is needed.”
“The philosopher Johann Herder once defined culture as ‘the lifeblood of a people; the flow of moral energy that keeps a society intact.’ If that analysis is correct, then we can respond that our society has been definitively exsanguinated. For this reason, I am so glad David Bahnsen’s book has made its way to the public—for such a time as this. From Wall Street to Main Street and from tech to trade, Bahnsen diagnoses the fundamental problem that ails us and prescribes the only possible cure. He chronicles the decline of individual responsibility while simultaneously offering concrete proposals to bring it back to the nation.”
“Bahnsen brings rare assets to his treatment of the 2008 financial crisis. He has decades of first-hand experience in the financial industry, a keen under- standing of economics, and a willingness to make fair but unpopular moral judgments. Together, these allow him to offer an account of the crisis that is both precise and comprehensive. The financial crisis is, in part, a tale of morality. But it’s not the cartoon morality tale that demonizes stereotypical villains and lets the rest of us off the hook. If we want to avoid a future crisis like the last one, we need to learn the lessons Bahnsen offers.”
“Bahnsen has produced the quintessential counter-narrative to both the 2008 financial collapse and the 2016 presidential election. The theme of both individual and institutional responsibility was a major driving force behind the founding of our nation, and it was a guiding principle until at least halfway through the twentieth century. Its evaporation in recent decades has dramatically altered our culture. Bahnsen exposes this crisis and shows us the way out of it. I eagerly endorse this book, but I must say that the most telling endorsement is nothing I could say, but rather the author himself, whom I have known for twenty years as the epitome of individual responsibility. This man practices what he preaches. It is principally for this reason that I urge you to listen to his preaching: the more David Bahnsens that emerge, the fewer cultural crises we would suffer.”
"In the midst of incredible political tension in our country, where the center does not seem to be holding, and both sides blame the other, Bahnsen calls for something truly radical, something that both the left and the right can embrace--a society marked by opportunity, individual responsibility, strong moral character, robust communities of faith , and the wholesale revitalization of the American dream. For centuries these were the values and ideals that animated our country; Bahnsen wants to bring them back and his book is a rallying cry to this end. Everyone should cheer him on."
“David Bahnsen has written the prescription for the current epidemic of conservative victimology. After the revolt against global elites and the urban ruling class and the Republican establishments, we find that our problems will remain with us until we step up and take responsibility for our own moral and economic health. Draining the swamp in Washington DC will avail nothing if our own families, businesses, voluntary associations and local communities remain brackish and unmaintained.”
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