Free Lunch: How the Wealthiest Americans Enrich Themselves at Government Expense (and StickYou with the Bill) [Bargain Price] [Paperback]

David Cay Johnston (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 30, 2008

Free Lunch answers the great mystery of our time: How did our strong and growing economy give way to job uncertainty, debt, bankruptcy, and fear for millions of Americans? Acclaimed reporter David Cay Johnston reveals how government policies and spending have reached deep into the wallets of the many to benefit the top 1% of the wealthiest.

He shows exactly who has been getting free lunches from the government—from $100 million to Warren Buffett, to $1.3 billion to the owners of the Yankees and Mets. But of course there’s really no such thing as a free lunch. The taxpayer always picks up the bill. With his in depth 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.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The U.S. government is serving out a free lunch, but, alas, it's a feeding frenzy for those already fat on cash cows. As big businesses continue to reap the benefits of government subsidies--many unnecessary and unjustifiable--Americans are throwing away billions of tax dollars every year to make these companies richer. Through a variety of anecdotal but quite expansive evidence and legitimate research, Johnston reveals that the true dividing line in Washington is between the corporatists and "peopleists," that is representatives who bend over backwards for businesses and those who want to protect citizens. As a narrator, Johnston's passion is evident just as much as his annoyance and frustration with the current state of affairs. While overall his performance keeps listeners engaged, often his discussion of numbers (particularly when discussing shifting percentages of different levels of class income over the past 40 years) can easily confuse the reader. Simultaneous release with the Portfolio hardcover (Reviews, Nov. 5).
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

“A journalistic missile launched against the myth that those who mooch off the government are mostly on the lower rungs… This is a provocative, highly readable and well-documented work.”
—South Florida Sun-Sentinel

“As an investigative reporter, Johnston is a big-game hunter. He skewers popular plutocrats like Buffett, digs up the dirt on unsavory sources of Paris Hilton’s fortune and details Apple executive Steve Jobs’s backdated stock options thievery.”
—The Nation

“If you’re concerned about congressional earmarks, hedge fund tax breaks, subsidies to sports teams, K Street lobbyists, the state of our health-care system, to say nothing of the cavernous gap between rich and poor, you’ll read this fine book—as I did—with a growing sense of outrage.”
—John C. Bogle, founder and former chairman, The Vanguard Group

“Johnston is an indefatigable reporter whose work recalls the muckraking epics of the Progressive era.”
—Portland Oregonian

“An engaging look at how the superrich consistently— and outrageously—rely on public handouts while preaching about free markets and wasteful entitlement programs all the way to the bank.”
—Mother Jones

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 336 pages
• Publisher: Portfolio Trade; Reprint edition (December 30, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1591842484
• ASIN: B002HREKHS
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.5 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (153 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #107,235 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

David Cay Johnston, a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter for The New York Times, has hunted down a killer the police failed to catch, exposed LAPD abuses, caused two television stations to lose their licenses over news manipulations, and revealed Donald Trump's true net worth. He has uncovered so many tax dodges that he has been called the "de facto chief tax enforcement officer of the United States." His last book, Perfectly Legal, was a New York Times bestseller and honored as Book of the Year by the journalism organization Investigative Reporters and Editors. Over his forty-year career he has won many other honors, including a George Polk Award.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

348 of 361 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars How 1% of Americans Take From the Other 99% and Why We Tolerate It January 3, 2008

By Frederick S. Goethel VINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

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.

136 of 140 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars The Other Things Adam Smith Said February 7, 2008

By Edwin C. Pauzer VINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover

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)" Read more ›

133 of 141 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars feeding at the public trough January 3, 2008

By Eric A. Isaacson

Format:Hardcover

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

73 of 82 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A deafening silence January 4, 2008

By Francois Theberge

Format:Hardcover

David Cay Johnston has been writing about this topic for years.
Question to all: How come no Dateline or 60 Minutes investigation hasn't exposed this ongoing scam?
How come newspapers just won't harp mercilessly on the politicians about that?

THAT is the real tragedy that shall cost this country its very preeminence. A non-informed citizenry is prime material for being robbed of their money and freedoms.

33 of 35 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Disapppointing follow up to "Perfectly Legal" May 7, 2008

By JoshJosh VINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover

David Cay Johnston's book "Perfectly Legal" was a masterpiece of muckraking which opened my eyes to the way the game is rigged in this country in favor of the rich. The book drew on his experience as a tax writer for the New York Times and presented, in tremendous detail and with great amounts of evidence, exact and precise ways in which the tax code has been rigged. It's layered and powerful - "Perfectly Legal" is an amazing book and I highly recommend it.

"Free Lunch" expands on this theme (rich people rigging this country's government to help them) feels like more of a polemic. The writing is shakier and the fact-based evidence is disguised behind a wall of obvious disgust and contempt for the people taking from the many to give to the wealthy and obscenely wealthy. I don't blame him, in fact I am disgusted by it as well, but it means that this book will not have the same impact as "Perfectly Legal". It is more "preaching to the choir" if you will.

The book also seems to bounce around too much. Some topics are covered in depth quite a bit while some not as much. Important points, like the fact that roughly 100% of the increase of value of sports teams has come from taxpayer subsidized stadiums, or that increased funding of libraries, parks, etc. could provide a useful buttress against gang crime, are not given adequate depth in my opinion.

Don't get me wrong - this is a valuable book and I do hope Johnston keeps up this important work. There is lots of good stuff in here, and it's critical more people know what politicians really mean when they talk about "free markets" and the like. But "Free Lunch" is not as convincing as "Perfectly Legal" and therein lies its greatest flaw.