Most books complain. This one complains,
explains, and hands you the manual.
These are the times that try men’s souls.
Thomas Paine — 1776
In 1776, a failed corset-maker who’d been in America barely a year wrote a pamphlet in plain language. It told ordinary colonists three things: here’s what’s being done to you, here’s who’s doing it, and here’s what you can do about it. It sold 500,000 copies when the entire colonial population was 2.5 million. It didn’t succeed because Paine had credentials. It succeeded because the moment was right, the language was accessible, and the reader couldn’t unsee what they’d just read.
The Thesis
You feel it at the grocery store. You feel it when the paycheck clears and the money’s already gone. You feel it when you work harder than your parents did and have less to show for it.
You’re not crazy. The system is broken. Not by accident. Not by one party or one president. By decades of decisions made by people who profit from your confusion and benefit from your silence.
Patriotic Economics is the book that shows you the machinery — in plain language, with no jargon, no hedging, and no apologies. Once you see it, you can’t unsee it.
Names what’s broken. Names who broke it. No diplomatic politeness.
Shows you the machinery. How the economic system works, who benefits, why it keeps getting worse.
Hands you the roadmap. What you can do. What you can demand from the people who represent you.
The Five Parts
How Americans were put to sleep. The slow, deliberate numbing of civic and economic awareness — through media, debt, and distraction — that made the rest of the story possible.
The structural vulnerabilities hiding in plain sight. The electrical grid, the supply chain, the financial plumbing — systems so fragile that a single shock could bring them down.
The financial architecture built on debt, derivatives, and deferred consequences. Who benefits from the complexity, why it keeps growing, and what happens when the bill finally comes due.
Where we are in the cycle. The Fourth Turning framework applied to the American moment — what history says happens next, and why it’s the necessary precondition for everything that follows.
The manual. Not abstractions — specific, actionable steps for citizens, communities, and policymakers. What a rebuilt American economy looks like and how ordinary people can be part of making it happen.
Who This Is For
The Book
Patriotic Economics arrives on the 250th anniversary of American independence. Not because the date is a marketing gimmick. Because the date is the point.
Two hundred and fifty years ago, a pamphlet written in plain language for ordinary people changed the course of a nation. This book carries the same ambition.
Five parts. Thirty-eight chapters. Written so you can read it in a weekend and spend the rest of your life acting on it.
At a Glance
Joe is available for podcast appearances, interviews, and speaking engagements.
Advance copies available for review.
Roberts & Ryan Investments • Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned