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| Author: David Cay Johnston
Publisher: Portfolio Hardcover
Category: Book
List Price: $24.95
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Avg. Customer Rating:  80 reviews
Sales Rank: 2353
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 352
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.1
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
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| Customer Reviews:
 Smiting the greedy May 8, 2008
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
David Cay Johnston is a crack reporter with a moralist's passion. In Free Lunch, he empties his notebook from a long and distinguished career, at the New York Times and other papers, exposing the how the rich and corporations use the power of government to line their pockets at the expense of the rest of us. The result is a loosely organized, but always compelling, compendium of some of the greatest heists of the last few decades, from taxpayer funding of sports arenas to electricity deregulation to the public subsidies Wal-Mart and other retail giants win to put their competitors out of business.
Johnston is a throwback, a Republican of the Teddy Roosevelt, Bull Moose variety, who lives by the wisdom of Adam Smith and the Bible. He understands the force of greed and its power to undermine free markets, especially when it enlists government in its service. He is appalled by the misconduct of corporate executives who jigger stock options and expose the public to harm, and by a government that looks the other way. He is outraged that the rich use government to take from those with less. And when you finish reading Free Lunch, you will be too.
 Ready to be shocked by our government's spending habits? May 6, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
The rich and wealthy elite of America are getting tons of free breaks, but who's picking up the bill? "Free Lunch: How The Wealthiest Americans Enrich Themselves At Government Expense (And Stick You With the Bill)" states how the common taxpayer doesn't gain any benefit through all of this and is simply paying for everything. "Free Lunch: How The Wealthiest Americans Enrich Themselves At Government Expense (And Stick You With the Bill)" outlines horrifying facts such as America having the most expensive but least efficient health care system in the industrialized world, subsidies for high class golf courses, and how corporations such as Major League Baseball teams get billions of dollars from the government. "Free Lunch: How The Wealthiest Enrich Themselves At Government Expense (And Stick You With the Bill)" is highly recommended for economics shelves and anyone ready to be shocked by our government's spending habits.
The Common Good Turned Upside Down May 1, 2008
6 out of 6 found this review helpful
Even a news reader on a mountain top knows the rich are getting richer, and the poor poorer. Never mind that the middle-class looks like an endangered species. The trend is clear, and not even the usual corporate mouthpieces can fuzz such relentless migrations out of existence. Now, I recall one of those boring civics classes from long ago. It talked about how government is supposed to work for "the common good". Of course, people being people, not everyone agrees on how that's best done or even what the words mean. According to my teacher, some say the common good comes with very little government, some say it's better with more government, and some say it's best with no government at all.
Maybe I was nodding off, but I don't recall a single one of those versions that said the "common good" means drowning 90% of the common good in red ink or saying that government serves best as a slush fund for those who need the money least. But it sure as heck looks like that's what the Repubocrats have come up with. It's taken them about 25 years, but here we all are. I don't know what my civics teacher would have said, but I don't think it would have been-- It ain't wrong so long as you can get away with it-- which seems to be the current corporate motto.
The book's a good read if you can keep from grabbing a a big stick. There're 23 chapters showing how the rich get richer by hiring politicians to milk the treasury's cash cow. Yes indeed, and just as importantly, it's the rest of us who get to make up the difference in tax dollars and services. You know, the kind of services 90% of us depend upon, like schools, roads, parks, cops, firefighters. And if it isn't us being whittled down, these hired hands have devised a new scheme. Now we get to pass the debt on to our kids and probably their kids' kids, along with what little else we might end up with. Now there's the American Dream turned upside down and inside out.
Along with a helpful section on the latest financial dodge, the hedge fund, the last three chapters sum things up and show where we're headed statistics-wise. And keep in mind, the book doesn't even include anything about the money being milked by those outfits plugged into the Defense Department, outfits like the Halliburton's, the Blackwater's and the rest. But then that's all "national security" so I guess they get a pass. Either that or the author couldn't write a book big enough. Meanwhile the public gets the bill, while more and more corporate jets fly to more and more ritzy watering holes. Probably I should have paid more attention in that civics class, but I do recall something interesting from a history class. It was about inviting people to eat cake when they didn't have much of anything else and what followed afterward. Maybe the Capitol library should stock up on a few more books like that. And while they're at it, they might order up a few more copies of Johnston's telling little tome.
How Congress Really Works April 29, 2008
7 out of 8 found this review helpful
This is a summary of Johnston's books and articles over the last few years, as much as this specific book. This review will apply to this book however, certainly, just that other reviews have excellently written about the book as written, and I'd like to take a different tact, more so encapsulating Johnston's book and theories to encourage others to read it.
Here's how Congress really works: Bills turned into laws aren't written by our elected officials, by and large. They are written by industry, organizations and lobby firms. What happens is this: A specific industry, organization, "special interest group" bonds together and hires a firm, usually a lobby firm (often staffed or run by former members of Congress, who are highly paid for their work), to help them write a bill that will assist them in paying less taxes, or in deregulating their industry (or regulate competing industries), or ensuring that they are given preferential contracts or benefits. The lobby firms then go directly to Congress, both in the US Senate and House of Representatives and wine and dine them with country club visits, lavish trips, and massive amounts of money donated to their re-election campaign or their political party, or a PAC group of their choice to help them get re-elected, or damage the hopes of their opponent.
Are you with me so far? I don't think many people would dispute this for the most part anyway.
The politicians then take the bill written by the industry, and then act as compilers of sorts. Merging these bills - rarely written by them or their staff mind you - into a related bill, or often a "Christmas Tree" bill. The bills then float back and forth between committee and then the Senate or House floor, all along having provisional bills tacked on or off (usually on) until the bill passes and goes onto the President who can pass it or veto it. If the bill fails, aspects of it, or a re-write of it is often later placed onto another bill if the lobbying is strong enough and the politician has enough power to make sure it gets through.
How that pertains to this book is that Johnston doesn't say this up front, but does in the book indirectly, or conclusively after one reads it and digests it. What has happened over the last several years is that the super wealthy, and often the industry and lobby firms that represent them and benefit them (and vice versa) have so very much money, that the power game has shifted entirely in their favor to where they have no problem making certain that bills get through Congress allowing them to comparatively pay very little taxes. It's now the politician's job to act out the part of defending this position in the name of "growth" or "expansion" or "fairness" and defend attacks on it, even if the bills are completely absurd or unfair as "stopping progress" "class warfare" etc.
What makes this most apparent, and Johnston could point this out more, is that some of the super wealthy want this stopped because they see how unfair it is, and how it's destroying our country (one of the things anyway). Warren Buffett for example has clearly stated it's obscene that his secretary pays a higher percentage of her income to taxes than he does.
All in all though, Johnston does a very good job of sifting through the muck. He's obviously done his research and understands the tax code, and how Congress has shifted it and why this is so, as much as anyone in America. I suppose that's why he has two Pulitzer's for his work. And it's the reason why you should read this work.
Muckraking in the Twenty-First Century April 29, 2008
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
David C. Johnston is a Pulitzer-Prize winning reporter who hunted a killer the police failed to catch, exposed LAPD abuses, and exposed manipulation of the news at two TV stations. He has become an expert on exposing tax dodges by the wealthy (your taxes go up because of this). Chapter 2 explains why most Americans are worse off than in 1980 (p.10). The average income has fallen since 1973, most Americans are poorer while the wealthiest are richer. Taxes increased for most Americans while taxes decreased for the wealthiest. You can compare this to the rise of an aristocracy (p.11) that rules without competition from a populist party. The role of politics and government is the control of the economy. Its obvious with a king or aristocracy in control, less so when the corporate media shields the ruling class (p.13).
[Johnston doesn't mention the political oppression against third parties over the last century. Only a state-wide political party can challenge the corporate twin-party system. But which one?] The decadence of the media is the result of their monopolies of concentrated ownership (p.15). The swindling of assets by executives (p.16) echoes the Robber Barons of the late 19th century. Are robbers guarding the bank vaults (p.17)? The increase in poverty is bad in itself, and results in more crime and higher taxes. One form of oppression is the lack of historic usury laws. This has caused a skyrocketing rate of bankruptcy (p.19), and an increase in gambling casinos! There is the corruption of contract government workers (p.20). Government subsidies enrich big corporations (Wal-Mart, Target) while they attack local owner-operated businesses (p.21).
The gifts and benefits to the super-rich impoverish the rest of us. It leads to lower wages, lost jobs, higher taxes, disease, bankruptcy, and crime. America has one of the largest prison populations in the world. Compare that to the democracy of the 19th century (p.23). Page 24 has a short list of swindlers. Your higher taxes and lower wages made them rich! It is ironic that those who argue for government subsidies to corporations and monopolies invoke the name of Adam Smith, who was opposed to subsidies and monopolies (p.24)!
Chapter 3 tells how free market ideology injures and kills people (p.28). Does this explain decaying bridges and highways? Railroads are the most deadly form of commercial transportation (p.33). CSX passed it bills to the government (p.35)! Should the US sell important technology to a foreign power (Chapter 4)? Foreign corporate taxes are paid by US citizens (p.41). Johnston is very wrong quoting Karl Polanyi's mis-diagnosis of history (p.52). Chapter 5 explains how public property was seized to enrich a multi-millionaire (p.55)! Tax money paid for this. Johnston is wrong to blame lower property taxes (p.57) for the deliberate ruin of public parks in Los Angeles. Johnston can't connect crime (p.59) to increasing poverty due to political decisions. Chapter 6 explains how commercial sports profit from taxpayers (p.62). Is show business the anodyne of the masses (p.65)? Sports-team subsidies are an attack on the education of children when it leads to closing libraries (p.67). The exemptions to sport leagues are a subsidy to organized crime and gambling syndicates (p.69). Its all perfectly legal because the US Supreme Court said so. [What was their cut?] George Steinbrenner made millions by not building ships (p.74). Chapter 7 explains the swindle that made George W. Bush a millionaire.
The 'Conclusion' lists his suggested cures. He points out the increasing debt load, which is a scam to give your tax money to the rich (p.284). One cure is to tax income from Federal, state, and municipal bonds (the 16th Amendment). The rich won't order new debts once they pay their fair share. Johnston's remarks about the founders (p.285) is laughably ignorant about political history; political repression and revolts are due to economics. Johnston is wrong to claim "finance reform" (p.292) will solve a political problem. The only cure is for citizens to organize a state-wide to provide votes and affect the primary and general elections.
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