|
Free Lunch: How the Wealthiest Americans Enrich Themselves at Government Expense (and Stick You with the Bill) | 
| Author: David Cay Johnston
Publisher: Portfolio Hardcover
Category: Book
List Price: $24.95
Buy New: $12.00
You Save: $12.95 (52%)
New (52) Used (24) Collectible (7) from $6.76
Avg. Customer Rating:  88 reviews
Sales Rank: 15842
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 352
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.4
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 6.4 x 1.3
ISBN: 1591841917
Dewey Decimal Number: 338.97302
EAN: 9781591841913
ASIN: 1591841917
Publication Date: December 27, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
|
| Also Available In:
|
| Similar Items:
|
| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
The bestselling author of Perfectly Legal returns with a powerful new expose
How does a strong and growing economy lend itself to job uncertainty, debt, bankruptcy, and economic fear for a vast number of Americans? Free Lunch provides answers to this great economic mystery of our time, revealing how todays government policies and spending reach deep into the wallets of the many for the benefit of the wealthy few.
Johnston cuts through the official version of events and shows how, under the guise of deregulation, a whole new set of regulations quietly went into effect regulations that thwart competition, depress wages, and reward misconduct. From how George W. Bush got rich off a tax increase to a $100 million taxpayer gift to Warren Buffett, Johnston puts a face on all of the dirty little tricks that business and government pull. A lot of people appear to be getting free lunchesbut of course theres no such thing as a free lunch, and someone (you, the taxpayer) is picking up the bill.
Johnstons many revelations include:
How we ended up with the most expensive yet inefficient health-care system in the world
How homeowners title insurance became a costly, deceitful, yet almost invisible oligopoly
How our government gives hidden subsidies for posh golf courses
How Paris Hiltons grandfather schemed to retake the family fortune from a charity for poor children
How the Yankees and Mets owners will collect more than $1.3 billion in public funds
In these instances and many more, Free Lunch shows how the lobbyists and lawyers representing the most powerful 0.1 percent of Americans manipulated our government at the expense of the other 99.9 percent.
With his extraordinary reporting, vivid stories, and sharp analysis, Johnston reveals the forces that shape our everyday economic livesand shows us how we can finally make things better.
|
| Customer Reviews: Read 83 more reviews...
 Perfectly Legal November 21, 2008
This an excellent book. Some of the things that it brought out I suspected ,but for the most part I could not have amagined that the tax system was so badly rigged. This is a must read for anyone who want to understand why there is such a great gap in the wealth of the haves and the have nots.
 Verbose, misleading, and not worth your time. November 18, 2008
When writing a book about problems in economic policy, the author of such a book should pick an objective. Some authors have an objective of educating the public by pointing out policies or unintended consequences of policies that the public might not be aware of. An educational piece should cite statutes and sources of information and statistics MUCH more thoroughly than this book. This book presented a terribly disorganized one-sided story of the facts.
Usually, the second objective of a book of this type is to propose solutions. This book contained a chapter called "What to Do?" roughly 6 pages long, 4 of those pages were just more ranting to make people upset; the last 2 pages of "solutions" were no solutions at all. I was not impressed with the book.
He had a good intent - to bring to light all the injustice involved with "welfare for billionaires." However, his message is lost with too many words, poorly cited research, and claims that are partially true, but deceiving in that they are presented out of context.
Change We Need October 26, 2008
If you want to understand what led to the financial catastrophe we are now experiencing there is no better place to start then David Cay Johnston's book, Free Lunch. Amazingly, it was written last year. A first class job of research by a former NY Times reporter who has a gift of narrative along with the facts to back it up. It is the perfect book to give to those good people we all know who doubt that the system is really corrupt.
Free Lunch August 25, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
Everyone should read this book.Find who is getting a free lunch and most are only getting table scraps!
Read in small doses August 11, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This book is probably best read in small portions, as the average person will become incensed at the greed that takes from the less and gives to the more. Fortunately, each chapter covers a specific rip off of the taxpayer, and is not too long. It might raise the blood pressure of the average person to read too many chapters at one time.
Yes, the wealthy and connected have rigged the system to flow the riches to themselves.
If there is one theme to the book, it is the Adam Smith's advice that government should not favor one endeavor over another is deaf to the people that continually use Adam Smith as the reason for government getting out of the way. It is not free enterprise when government takes one side, which is what the wealthy and well connected have the government do.
A good companion is Hostile Takeover by David Sirota (available on Amazon Kindle).Hostile Takeover: How Big Money and Corruption Conquered Our Government--And How We Take It Back
His prior book, Perfectly Legal, is a good primer, although a bit dated as to how the wealthy avoid taxes. In Free Lunch, it is how the wealthy get subsidies. Perfectly Legal: The Covert Campaign to Rig Our Tax System to Benefit the Super Rich--and Cheat Everybody Else
|
|
|
Powered by Associate-O-Matic
| |
