Stealing You Blind: How Government Fat Cats Are Getting Rich Off of You [Hardcover]

Iain Murray (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 11, 2011

They’re Stealing Us Blind

Remember when we used to call government employees “public servants”? They’re servants no more—now they’re bureaucratic masters of the universe, claiming inflated salaries (up to two times as much as private sector employees) and early retirement with unparalleled pensions and benefits. And how do they spend their time? When they’re actually working, they spin red tape and regulations that make your life harder (and their lives easier), your taxes higher, and your share of the nation’s debt unsustainable.

Like true bureaucrats they like to scurry around in the dark, doing their mischief outside of public scrutiny. But no longer: Iain Murray—author of the rollicking exposé The Really Inconvenient Truths—knows all about bureaucrats and their lairs, because he used to be one himself. In Stealing You Blind he blows the whistle on the out-of-control bureaucracy whose greed could actually tip our country into a financial abyss.

In Stealing You Blind, you’ll discover:

• Why the wealthiest congressional district in America is in a recession-proof suburb of Washington, D.C.
  
• How the Department of Transportation went from having one employee making $170,000 or more to having nearly 1,700 making that much—during the peak of the recession
  
• Why even FDR thought federal workers shouldn’t be allowed to unionize
  
• How state, local, and federal bankruptcy could be coming your way thanks to public employee union greed
  
• Why bureaucrats regard taxpayers as sheep to be shorn—and how they do it
  
• Ten steps to fight back and regain control of our government from the parasitic bureaucratic class
  

Filled with devastating facts about how government workers are living large off the rest of us and driving our country to financial ruin, Stealing You Blind is a rousing call to reclaim our rights as taxpayers and save our economy from the bureaucrats who are choking it to death for their own benefit.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Praise for Stealing You Blind

“Where do all your hard-earned tax dollars go? You don’t know the half of it! . . . This must read manual takes you on a maddening tour that starts at Al Gore’s mansion, winds through the ever-expanding empire of Nanny State busybodies in Washington, and dives into bloated municipal payrolls from the Big Apple to Bell, California. Murray outlines imperative reforms to rein in these new robber barons. If you believe public servants should serve the public and not themselves, get this book.”
—Michelle Malkin, Fox News Contributor and author of Culture of Corruption

“A powerful government, the liberal myth goes, places a check on special interests and provides a counterbalance to the power of the wealthy. In truth, government growth instead creates a new class of Robber Barons—handsomely paid ‘public servants’ who soon monetize that service to become obscenely paid revolving-door lobbyists and ‘consultants.’ Recovered bureaucrat Iain Murray paints the unseemly picture of ‘our new leisure class’ in vivid—and often rage-inducing—detail.”
—Tim Carney, author of Obamanomics and Senior Political Columnist, The Washington Examiner

“Iain Murray eviscerates what he calls the new robber barons, the great empire-builders of the public sector. It is a story of greed, arrogance, and power that would make even a domineering nineteenth-century industrialist blush. This isn’t just a smart and entertaining take-down, but a call to action.”
—Rich Lowry, editor of National Review

From the Back Cover

DID YOU KNOW?

• Before Obama’s election, only one employee at the Federal Department of Transportation earned $170,000 or more; a year later, nearly 1,700 did
  
• The average Federal worker is paid double what his private sector counterpart earns
  
• One city administrator was paid $800,000 a year—and wrote himself a pension plan paying $1 million a year
  
• Los Angeles spent $111 million in stimulus money—to create 55 jobs
  
• And there’s so much more...
  

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Regnery Publishing; 1 edition (July 11, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1596981539
• ISBN-13: 978-1596981539
• Product Dimensions: 6.4 x 0.9 x 9.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #986,231 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

50 of 51 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Introduction to Public Choice Theory June 27, 2011

By Ryan Young

Format:Hardcover

Disclosure: the author is a colleague.

Stealing You Blind is a depressing read, though a necessary one. Murray only uses the phrase once, but he has written an excellent introduction to the branch of economics called public choice theory. That alone makes this book a worthwhile (and surprisingly quick) read.

One of the basic lessons of economics is that people respond to incentives. The trouble is that many people forget that insight when it comes to government employees. Politicians, and bureaucrats, the thinking goes, are dispassionate, objective, and (usually) act in the public interest. The public choice theorist's job is to remind us that bureaucrats and politicians are people, too. They have incentives, and they respond to them.

Murray does a lot of reminding in this book. It contains story after depressing story of government officials responding to their incentives. A politician's incentive is to win re-election. A regulator's incentive is to expand his agency's turf and budget. A public sector labor union's incentive is to gain members -- usually by growing government and supporting allied politicians.

This has consequences. When regulators have the power to tilt the playing field, businesses have an incentive to come to Washington and see that the field is tilted their way. This is called regulatory capture, and it is a huge source of Washington corruption.

Another incentive that public sector employees share with the rest of us is to get paid. Murray gives many examples of pay-related corruption, such as a city manager in a small California city with an $800,000 salary. The sweetheart salaries, pensions, early retirements, and other perks have reached the point that bankruptcy will soon be the only option for some cities, and even some states.

Murray concludes with a list of suggested reforms. Everything is on the table, from outright abolishing the departments of Commerce and Education, to requiring Congress to vote on major regulations.

The only quibble I have is that Murray is less of a gradualist than I am. He would like to see as many reforms as possible enacted at once. I worry that they will fail to stick if that happens; one step at a time. We still agree very much on the problem, and what fixes are needed.

I also feel that the book's title, and especially its subtitle, are less than subtle. But if the publishers think that will sell more books, then I hope they are right. Stealing You Blind deserves to be widely read. Highly recommended.

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Murray nails it again July 13, 2011

By Vinnie

Format:Hardcover

Murray exposes the incestuous relationship between special interest and politicians in Stealing you Blind. Whether it is so-called research grants, government unions, rent seeking corporation, or simply over regulation, Murray shows the political process that is hosing the American Taxpayer.

The book is a must read for anyone concerned about our runaway budget and the debt we are leaving our children. Murray's writing style and in depth research provides something for everyone from the political notice to policy wonks in Washington.

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Inside the hidden world of regulators July 13, 2011

By Francesca

Format:Hardcover

Iain Murray's new book unveils a really inside-Washington story -- how unelected bureaucrats expand their turf to gain power and prestige, to the detriment of the American public. Yes, it's the public that pays for more and more regulations that are not only onerous and costly but also that substitute bureaucrats' judgments for individual choices. And Murray shows that it's not just the "public officials" who head the federal agencies. It's also a legion of highly paid government workers who give little pause to the public they serve.

Murray's book gives a much-needed look at one of the main drivers of the bloated regulatory state -- the people who benefit from its growth.