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Free Lunch: How the Wealthiest Americans Enrich Themselves at Government Expense (and Stick You with the Bill) | 
 enlarge | Author: David Cay Johnston
Publisher: Portfolio Hardcover
Category: Book
List Price: $24.95
Buy New: $14.69
You Save: $10.26 (41%)
New (41) Used (15) Collectible (5) from $13.40
Rating:  85 reviews
Sales Rank: 644
Media: Hardcover
Pages: 352
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.4
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 6.4 x 1.3
ISBN: 1591841917
Dewey Decimal Number: 338.97302
EAN: 9781591841913
Publication Date: December 27, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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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 today s 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 lunches but of course there s no such thing as a free lunch, and someone (you, the taxpayer) is picking up the bill.
Johnston s 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 Hilton s 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 lives and shows us how we can finally make things better.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 80 more reviews...
 How 1% of Americans Take From the Other 99% and Why We Tolerate It January 3, 2008
Frederick S. Goethel (Central Valley, CA)
242 out of 260 found this review helpful
The author has written a well documented and detailed account of how less than 1% of Americans are getting rich of the backs of the other 99%. And, it isn't just individuals who are reaping millions of dollars from taxpayers...it's also corporations.
Some of the items presented in detail in the book include how one of the largest baseball teams in the country destroyed a public park for a new stadium, had it paid for by the citizens, and then gave payback to politicians who helped.
Or the two major hunting and fishing chains that got millions and millions in tax subsidies to build stores based on false and unsustainable promises, and continue to try to rape the treasuries of communities across the country with more false promises.
Or the company who built a call center in Buffalo using tax subsidies and sold it to the public through a newspaper owned by the same company.
These are just several examples of the material detailed in the book. In addition to showing who is taking, and how, the author details who is fighting back and how they are trying to in an era when the courts and politicians are held by corporate interests.
The book is well written, and well documented. In addition, the author took what can be a very dry subject and made extremely readable. This book should be read by every American, particularly in light of the upcoming presidential elections. Some familiar names will pop out at you as individuals who made their fortunes off our backs.
feeding at the public trough January 3, 2008
Eric A. Isaacson (San Diego, CA USA)
98 out of 116 found this review helpful
How can our government be so expensive, yet so ineffective?
Showing it's no accident that our political institutions too often serve the interests of the rich and powerful, Mr. Johnston "follows the money" -- the money that buys special favors, and the money that's siphoned out of our pockets to pay for them.
This is an eminently readable and informative book, that deserves a large audience. But be warned -- being informed can produce outrage!
Eric Alan Isaacson
Excellent Analysis January 3, 2008
John P. Milton (Tucson, AZ USA)
98 out of 126 found this review helpful
This book is an excellent analysis of corporate socialism. Johnson clarifies how profoundly industry has taken all the profits in a growing economy, taxing the citizens to do it. This a powerful political wakeup call. Highly recommended.
Ten star MUST READ January 19, 2008
MotherLodeBeth (Sierras of California)
36 out of 42 found this review helpful
If you don't read any other book this year read this one.
So refreshing to read a book where the author not only has done their homework, but names names rather than rely on the old trick of anonymous sources. Also makes it clear that men like Warren Buffet, Donald Trump and dozens of major sports owners, Steve Jobs and others are not the self made people they want us to believe.
How can they be a self made people with millions if we the taxpayers have provided the money and we have gotten zip back and they have gotten fat and rich? These men and women are nothing but socialist whores.
Doubt any have read Adam Smith or Thomas Paine, which the author write of extensively. Remember this come November and election time. Sadly, I believe the elite few will make sure we have more to fear even if it wisent anything to fear, just so we don't become a larger crowd pointing fingers at them. And lets not forget the elected men and women who have let us down.
Makes one wonder if we don't need another revolution to take OUR country back. Read Adam Smith and Thomas Paine, because they foresaw problems and warned the citizens, so they would be prepared.
The Other Things Adam Smith Said February 7, 2008
Edwin C. Pauzer (New York City)
54 out of 58 found this review helpful
One thing you can expect when you open a book by David Cay Johnston is narrative that reads like a drama unfolding except that the plot is present-day America and the story is how the wealthy are getting richer at the expense of the middle class. Hence the title "Free Lunch," where the wealthy steal it with government approval, are paid to take it, or get it free, courtesy of the same who hands the bill over to us.
At the very beginning, Johnston explains what the invisible hand of Adam Smith means, for the benefit of those who know it and for those who only think they do--of which there are more than enough of the latter. Smith postulated that a free market economy creates competition that serves the common good but, (and here's the kicker), does not work if government provides them bounty (subsidies), or allows them to collude to keep prices high. He also stated that there would be enterprises that would operate to seek bounties only, the equivalent of modern corporate welfare.
Johnston provides chapter after fascinating chapter of how government at all levels offers break after break which is consistently picked up by Average Joe Taxpayer. Such "bounties" include:
Misuse of eminent domain, which is supposed to mean appropriating land for the common good such as a new highway or airport. Now it is used to support developers who wish to profit at the expense of the homeowner.
Tax breaks. Not only do companies such as Wal-Mart, Cabela, or Bass Pro insist on property tax breaks that decimate the local economy rather than improve it, but they might even insist on keeping the sales tax. Communities may not see a return on their investment for decades.
Government intervention in the form of legislation that may even benefit large companies at the expense of the citizen such as "free-market" energy as espoused by Ken Lay that eventually cost Californians exorbitant charges for no additional electricity generated.
Kids who take student loans are finding out that what they thought was a loan at six percent suddenly became eighteen percent guaranteeing that they will pay far more than they borrowed for years to come, and the lender is guaranteed no risk.
Our government is also lavishing subsidies onto for-profit health care companies that consistently look for ways to deny claims. No subsidies go to nonprofit health systems even though studies show they offer superior care. (Adam Smith also said: "What improves the circumstances of the greater part can never be regarded as an inconveniency to the whole").
The grand prize, which is our current administration in the form of George W. Bush who sponsored a drug plan for seniors that was worked on (behind closed doors) by Billy Tauzin (R), Max Baucus (D), and John Breaux (D). These "representatives of the people" guaranteed that Adam Smith's dictum of seeking the lowest possible price would be ignored. Their bill guaranteed that our government would not be allowed to negotiate the price of drugs for its citizens even though it would make purchases in bulk.
In each of the above, there has not only been collusion by companies and industries, but also a feckless government that has given its blessing with collusion of its own, subsidies, and bluster of threats to investigate wrong-doing, with investigations that never quite materialize.
Having read his previous work "Perfectly Legal" I was eager to get my hands on this book, and I was not disappointed. In twenty-seven chapters that span the length of less than 300 pages, you will discover how industry and government have actually worked to first deceive, then gouge the average hard-working taxpayer. Any one of these chapters is a revelation that made me open this book at every opportunity.
This is the kind of book you can be sorry that it comes to an end, and also be glad that it does (because it is too painful).
If this book cannot stir the most politically apathetic into action, nothing will.
Maybe they'll just have to see the bill first.
Also recommended:
"Perfectly Legal" by David Cay Johnston
"The Conscience of a Liberal" by Paul Krugman
"Sicko" (DVD) by Michael Moore
"The Broken Branch: How Congress Is Failing America and How to Get It Back on Track (Institutions of American Democracy)"
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