Nearly two years before his book appeared, Dr. Sobel discussed the foundation of these ideas with some of our State's best business, policy and education leaders at a roundtable of the nonprofit West Virginia Venture Connection (WVVC), of which I am the executive director. Dr. Sobel -- a nationally recognized economist and distinguished chair in entrepreneurial studies at West Virginia University -- had the courage to address chronic issues in our State's economy as well as the commitment to seek solutions. This could not be more timely as our State finds itself again at the bottom of the nation in economic development. It certainly takes no cultural apologist (histrionic or otherwise) to recognize the need for smart departures from a status quo that has continued to produce the same results generation after generation. No matter how tough it is to face change -- unless we want our children to continue leaving (as my father did from the coal fields a generation before) for work elsewhere -- the global economy will leave us further and further behind. Fortunately, Dr. Sobel's work offers practical optimism that when educated, hard working people forge their own businesses free of social engineers, political opportunists and bureaucrats, a new generation of West Virginia children will have the health, education and opportunity they deserve.

I had to read the book after hearing the author crack on West Virginia Public Radio, an interview that is archived at their site. When asked about his selective use of evidence and the ideological bias proclaimed in the book's title, Sobel's only recourse was to shriek "I'm an academic!" As a humanities PHD, I was embarrassed by his histrionics. Particularly noteworthy was an attempt to cover his raging political bias by retreating behind the academic curtain--as though academic disciplines, particularly the soft sciences of economics and sociology, aren't intrinsically political. Sobel is profoundly out of touch with academic realities if he is able to believe that academic argumentation isn't unavoidably political, particularly when it takes a stand on particular public policy points. Perhaps this remoteness from reality is why this book is self-published by a Republican (shhh!) think tank instead of being issued by an academic, peer-reviewed press. He's also profoundly out of touch with Appalachian Studies, and chapter four (by a co-writer) is based on a scholar widely known as a "hack" for his reductive analysis of Appalachian culture. Anyone who has actually lived in the coal fields knows that chapter four is egregiously off the mark, if not deliberately deceptive. This book looks like a set of GOP talking points and is funded by industry through an ideological front-group. It isn't "objective" scholarship.

I'm a displaced West Virginia gal who has two sisters who had to seek a "real" life outside the West Virginia borders. I'm the oldest of the three and in 1969 when my sister Lois graduated from high school she and I went to the Seat of Government (FBI)where we made a very good living. When our little sister Sally graduated from high school (I'm 7 years her junior)she also started working for the FBI who was still seeking its best workforce in the West Virginia hills (in my opinion--sorry, I've worked for lawyers and need to qualify my statements). Lois was strong enough to stay put in the D.C. area where she could make a good living, bear her children and give them a good life. My sister Sally and I lived together for many, many, many years where I was her only support. She suffers PTSD (and so do I) from a horrible childhood between two parents (a West Virginia dad and an Ohio mother). I also have PTSD
but didn't know it until I married in 2003 and moved away from West Virginia yet again. Sally and I took care of each other (Sally was my emotional strength and I her financial support)but we couldn't bear to be away from our beautiful hills and always returned time and again. Thank God that He was looking out for Sally because she got on Social Security Disability the first time she applied and didn't have to seek free legal counsel (like how--it took our Dad, a WWII flyboy a year or more to get his disability when he suffered a heart attack at just 41). She is still in West Virginia with the hills and Lulu has taken down her beautiful work, her poetry and her Portrait of Christ. She was self-published by Xlibris when Random House was starting another book company and published her Little Sallies of the Mind FREE. Anyway, I was searching today to see if Sally's work was still online and I found your book listed. I'm so glad you chose Lulu as your publisher, and I hope it gets the attention it deserves. I miss my hills in the flatlands of Illinois, but like they say "You can take the gal out of the country, but not the country out of the gal."

Professor Sobel and his co-authors have provided a roadmap to increased prosperity and quality of life in West Virginia. They guide the layman to the realization that liberty and the economic system that flows from liberty, capitalism, hold the best promise for the people of the Mountain State.



The experiment has been run. Collectivism in West Virginia has, predictably, failed.



This book has the potential to re-educate and re-direct those who want to improve the lives of all West Virginians. Policy-makers, heed its lessons!



Richard Kerr

“Congratulations to Dr. Russell Sobel and his team of authors for producing an economic development tour de force, which is at once diagnostic, prognostic, and prescriptive in its core message—that the most widely shared prosperity is directly correlated to economic freedom. Montani semper liberi.” —Scott Rotruck Director of Corporate Development, Chesapeake Energy

“Not beholden to unions, industry, government or other special interests, The Public Policy Foundation of West Virginia brings the bright light of impartial market-oriented economic analysis to bear on the way well-meaning but badly advised policies have so impeded economic growth in West Virginia.” —John Blundell Director General, Institute of Economic Affairs, London, England

“Unleashing Capitalism is the most significant contribution to the West Virginia policy debate in decades. This impressive group of scholars has undertaken the largest and most comprehensive academic study ever done of our state’s policies. For anyone interested in the future prosperity of West Virginia, this book is an invaluable guide to how it can be accomplished.” —Brent D. Robinson Regional President, West Virginia-North, Branch Banking and Trust Company (BB&T)

“A thorough and accessible explanation of free-market economics and how West Virginia's well-meaning but misguided policies have actually hindered growth and prosperity. But economic stagnation does not have to be our destiny. For all those who love West Virginia, the Public Policy Foundation offers a pragmatic, non-partisan vision for reforms that would ensure our economy can thrive for future generations.” —Nora T. Myers Executive Director, Entrepreneurship Center, University of Charleston

“Over the past several decades many of the world’s countries have adopted free-market reforms increasing the ‘economic freedom’ of their citizens and have grown rapidly as a result. This book shows how to bring economic freedom to West Virginia—the U.S. state with the least reliance on free markets—to promote economic growth and prosperity. The value of this book lies in the specific policy reforms that can make it happen, all backed up by economic theory and empirical evidence.” —Robert A. Lawson, Ph.D. Professor of Economics and George H. Moor Chair at Capital University, and author of the annual Economic Freedom of the World index

“The Public Policy Foundation of West Virginia is addressing the most urgent problem facing West Virginia today—our state's lack of economic opportunity and freedom. Few of our obvious problems would not be bettered or resolved completely by progress in those areas. Our political system has defeated the basic human impulse to invest and grow, and as a result, our citizens have suffered greatly. That is why what the foundation is doing can rightly be considered, first and foremost, a humanitarian effort.” —Chris Stirewalt Political Editor, West Virginia Media

“This book should be read by every politician, journalist, and businessman in West Virginia. The essays included in it do a fine job of explaining the measures that need to be taken in order to promote capitalism, business, and entrepreneurship in West Virginia. These actions include tax reform, advancing the security of property rights through limitations on the use of eminent domain, the reduction of regulations on business and labor, and much more.” —Edward W. Younkins, Ph.D. Professor of Accountancy and Executive Director of the Institute for the Study of Capitalism and Morality, Wheeling Jesuit University, and author of Capitalism and Commerce