Free Lunch: How the Wealthiest Americans Enrich Themselves at Government Expense (and Stick You with the Bill)
by David Cay Johnston
List Price:
Our Price: $3.97
You Save: $20.98 (84%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $1.52 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions
Book Summary Information
Author: David Cay JohnstonEdition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 2007-12-27
ISBN: 1591841917
Number of pages: 352
Publisher: Portfolio Hardcover
Book Reviews of Free Lunch: How the Wealthiest Americans Enrich Themselves at Government Expense (and Stick You with the Bill)
Book Review: How "Special Interests" Pick Your Pocket in the U.S. to Create Billion-Dollar Fortunes
Summary: 5 Stars
I wanted to lose my lunch on the shoes of any politician or executive named in this book after reading what David Cay Johnston had to say. Unless you want to be cheated forever (and for more money), read this book and let your "elected" and "appointed" representatives know that you won't stand for it any more.
George Washington, as usual, got it right: If we allow political parties to exist rather than looking out for everyone's interests in a non-partisan way, the parties will sell out the public interest for pennies to get money to run election campaigns and conduct party politics.
It's popular now to say we need a change in Washington, a change that involves changing political parties in charge of governing. Wrong! Really, how foolish can we get? Can't anyone remember what Washington said?
In the meantime, you can read the excellent exposes in David Cay Johnston's book to help you realize that your Federal, state, and local legislators in the United States are selling out your and your children's interests to curry favor with those who will give them large campaign contributions. Yes, there's some corruption but mostly it seems to be related to wanting power and more power . . . and not understanding what the costs will be.
Once again, we see tales of how the fig leaf of "free markets" is invoked to put in changes that cause "rigged markets" with vastly increased profits. My favorite example in the book is how President Bush and his pal, "Kenny Boy" Lay, from Enron rigged the electricity markets so that instead of consumers paying the lowest price anyone was willing to sell electricity for (a Dutch auction) the highest price bid is paid to all (which means they take turns putting in phony high-priced bids to rig prices way above where they would be in either a free or a regulated market).
Here are some of the more interesting cases in the book:
1. How famous Scottish golf courses were re-created through indirect and direct taxpayer subsidies in a remote part of Oregon that is easily accessible only by corporate jet.
2. How public parks were gobbled up to build the new Yankee Stadium in New York City and parks in poor areas everywhere were left untended to favor richer areas.
3. Ways that college and graduate school students are cheated on their interest rates for student loans.
4. How burglar alarm monitoring companies are subsidized to earn big profits by free police services covering false alarms while response rates to real crimes decline.
5. How John Snow stopped repairing the track at CSX causing deaths with no risk that any costs would be incurred by CSX. You, the taxpayer, paid instead for his willful neglect.
6. How many "high profile" politicians including Rudy Giuliani have ignored anti-corruption laws and take huge gifts and trips from lobbyists.
7. How two leading sporting goods chains persuade governments to subsidize their stores with tax breaks worth a multiple of the total construction cost of each store.
8. How "good guy" Warren Buffett is out for all the tax breaks he can get, regardless of the public cost and harm to the local community in Buffalo.
9. How "required" title insurance creates one of America's most profitable industries by bribing banks and lawyers with money you pay when you buy a home.
10. How the California courts let Barron Hilton seize the assets of a charity that his father had established to help the poor. So if you like Paris Hilton's clothes, realize that she paid for them in part with money that was destined for those who need clothes . . . any kind of clothes.
11. We've all read about the massive amounts of money made in Russia and elsewhere by politicians selling off government operations at bargain prices to their pals. Well the same thing has been going on here with selling off municipal utilities and non-profit foundations. It's like a banana republic.
12. You'll also read about how creating "deregulated" utilities allows companies to shuffle around costs between their subsidiaries so that rate payers pay for the same construction costs twice.
13. You will be reminded of President Bush's misstatements and keeping the lid on more accurate reports about what his drug benefit plan for seniors would cost. But what's a few hundred billion for a guy who spent a trillion dollars (so far) in Iraq?
Most people would probably like this book better if it had a more partisan tone (how the Republicans stole from the poor and middle class to make the rich a lot richer). Instead, the book points at individuals (a more accurate way to assess the sources of corruption) including two-term president "the peoples' choice" George W. Bush and invokes spiritual rules for suggesting other ways of making choices.
More Free Lunch: How the Wealthiest Americans Enrich Themselves at Government Expense (and Stick You with the Bill) reviews:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Newest Review
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Newest Review
Business & Investing Books
Book Subjects
- Arts & Photography
- Audiobooks on Cassette
- Audiobooks on CD
- Biographies & Memoirs
- Business & Investing
- Children's Books
- Comics & Graphic Novels
- Computers & Internet
- Cooking, Food & Wine
- e-Books
- Engineering
- Entertainment
- Gay & Lesbian
- Health, Mind & Body
- History
- Home & Garden
- Horror
- Law
- Literature & Fiction
- Medicine
- Mystery & Thrillers
- Nonfiction
- Outdoors & Nature
- Parenting & Families
- Professional & Technical
- Reference
- Religion & Spirituality
- Romance
- Science
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Sports
- Teens
- Travel
Most talked about in Best Political Books of 2008
Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the White House, A: Humor, Blunders, and Other Oddities From the Presidential Campaign Trailby Charles Osgood
Hyperion; Published: 2008-05-13; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $2.65
Price in other shops:
The Real McCain: Why Conservatives Don't Trust Him and Why Independents Shouldn'tby Cliff Schecter
PoliPoint Press; Published: 2008-05-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $0.24
Price in other shops:
Do the Right Thing: Inside the Movement That's Bringing Common Sense Back to Americaby Mike Huckabee
Sentinel HC; Published: 2008-11-18; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $10.38
Price in other shops:
Deciding the Next Decider: The 2008 Presidential Race in Rhymeby Calvin Trillin
Random House; Published: 2008-11-25; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $2.98
Price in other shops:
How to Ruin the United States of Americaby Ben Stein, Phil DeMuth
New Beginnings Press; Published: 2008-06-30; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $5.99
Price in other shops:
The Big Book of Campaign 2008 Cartoonsby Daryl Cagle, Brian Fairrington
Que; Published: 2008-10-05; Paperback; Book
Best price: $9.96
Price in other shops:
Critical: What We Can Do About the Health-Care Crisisby Tom Daschle
Thomas Dunne Books; Published: 2008-02-19; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $9.12
Price in other shops:
The Revolution: A Manifestoby Ron Paul
Grand Central Publishing; Published: 2008-04; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $10.06
Price in other shops:
Your Government Failed You: Breaking the Cycle of National Security Disastersby Richard A. Clarke
Ecco; Published: 2008-06-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $1.93
Price in other shops:
Fleeced: How Barack Obama, Media Mockery of Terrorist Threats, Liberals Who Want to Kill Talk Radio, the Do-Nothing Congress, Companies That Help Iran, and Washington Lobbyists for Foreign Governments Are Scamming Us ... and What to Do About Itby Dick Morris, Eileen Mcgann
Harper; Published: 2008-07-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $12.48
Price in other shops:
Similar books summaries and other product reviews
The Fall of the House of Bush: The Untold Story of How a Band of True Believers Seized the Executive Branch, Started the Iraq War, and Still Imperils America's Futureby Craig Unger
Scribner; Published: 2007-11-13; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $0.74
Price in other shops:
Where Does the Money Go?: Your Guided Tour to the Federal Budget Crisisby Scott Bittle, Jean Johnson
Collins Business; Published: 2008-02-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $0.01
Price in other shops:
The Age of American Unreason (Vintage)by Susan Jacoby
Vintage; Published: 2009-02-10; Paperback; Book
Best price: $9.11
Price in other shops:
Thomas Paine and the Promise of Americaby Harvey J. Kaye
Hill and Wang; Published: 2006-07-25; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.46
Price in other shops:
The Limits of Power: The End of American Exceptionalism (American Empire Project)by Andrew Bacevich
Holt Paperbacks; Published: 2009-04-27; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.91
Price in other shops:
The Conscience of a Liberalby Paul Krugman
W.W. Norton & Co.; Published: 2009-01-12; Paperback; Book
Best price: $9.13
Price in other shops:
Bad Money: Reckless Finance, Failed Politics, and the Global Crisis of American Capitalismby Kevin Phillips
Penguin (Non-Classics); Published: 2009-03-31; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.89
Price in other shops:
Gotcha Capitalism: How Hidden Fees Rip You Off Every Day-and What You Can Do About Itby Bob Sullivan
Ballantine Books; Published: 2007-12-26; Paperback; Book
Best price: $2.95
Price in other shops:
The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalismby Naomi Klein
Picador; Published: 2008-06-24; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.94
Price in other shops:
Perfectly Legal: The Covert Campaign to Rig Our Tax System to Benefit the Super Rich--and Cheat Everybody Elseby David Cay Johnston
Published: 2005-01-04; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.37
Price in other shops: