| |  | Books : Free Lunch: How the Wealthiest Americans Enrich Themselves at Government Expense (and Stick You with the Bill) |  | | | | | | | | | |
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Binding: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 338.97302
EAN: 9781591841913
ISBN: 1591841917
Label: Portfolio Hardcover
Manufacturer: Portfolio Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 352
Publication Date: December 27, 2007
Publisher: Portfolio Hardcover
Sales Rank: 922
Studio: Portfolio Hardcover
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Editorial Review:
Product Description:
The bestselling author of Perfectly Legal returns with a powerful new exposé
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.
Customer Reviews Average Rating: 
Rating:  - Free Lunch
Everyone should read this book.Find who is getting a free lunch and most are only getting table scraps!
Rating: - Read in small doses
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 ... Read More
Rating: - Greed Oligarchy Plutocracy
An excellent, well-documented and readable investigation and analysis of how the whole system of American government, at Federal, State and Local levels, has been used for the past 30 years or so to tax the poor and the middle class in order to enrich the already wealthy. If you think this sounds like the system in France in 1788, you are absolutely right. If you are not angry already, you need to read this book. If you are angry already, you still need to read this book in order to confirm all your ... Read More
Rating:  - Free Lunch
A very informative and straight-ahead book revealing, anecdote by real-life anecdote, how, during the Bush/Clinton/Bush administrations, our public commons -- in other words, our tax dollars -- increasingly have been routinely commandeered by a tiny and superrich elite for their own exhorbitant profit. In the form of public subsidies for private developers and retailers, such as Cabelas and Wal-Mart, and throughprivatization of our utility companies starting with Enron's massive rip-off of our public ... Read More
Rating: - Great Book
Very well written book.It's very sad, especially since you read it and don't have any power to do anything about it, but it's very well written.
Free Lunch: How the Wealthiest Americans Enrich Themselves at Government Expense (and Stick You with the Bill) | | | |
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