Free Lunch: How the Wealthiest Americans Enrich Themselves at Government Expense (and Stick You with the Bill)

by David Cay Johnston

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781591842484
Publisher:	Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date:	12/30/2008
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	336
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.30(h) x 1.10(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

David Cay Johnston is a Pulitzer Prize–winning reporter who has been called the “de facto chief tax enforcement officer of the United States.” His most recent books, Perfectly Legal and Free Lunch, were New York Times bestsellers. He was a reporter for the New York Times for 13 years and now writes a column for Reuters. He also teaches at the Syracuse University College of Law and the Whitman School of Management, and he was recently elected to be board president of Investigative Reporters and Editors, Inc. He lives in Rochester, New York. Visit davidcayjohnston.com.

What People are Saying About This

“If you’re concerned about congressional earmarks, stock options (especially backdated options), hedge fund tax breaks, abuse of eminent domain, 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. Free Lunch makes it clear that it’s high time for ‘We the People’ to stand up and be counted.”
—John C. Bogle, founder and former chairman, The Vanguard Group

“With clarity, conciseness, and cool, fact-saturated analysis, Mr. Johnston, the premier investigative reporter on how industry and commerce shift risks and costs to taxpayers, sends the ultimate message to all Americans—either we demand to have a say or we will continue to pay, pay, and pay.”
—Ralph Nader

Editorial Reviews

Washington budget watchdog William Proxmire died in 2005, but the creator of the Golden Fleece Awards for wasteful government expenditures would warmly endorse David Cay Johnston's book. In Free Lunch, Johnston, a Pulitzer Prize–winning New York Times journalist, uses his investigative skills to expose tax dodges and federal "free lunches" for the super-rich. With the determination of a single-minded sleuth, he tracks legislative and lobbyist conniving that bilks Americans of billions of dollars each year. Whether you're right, left, center, or just innately skeptical, this book will confirm your worst fears.

An exhaustive litany of federal, state and even local giveaways to the very wealthy, described in agonizing and depressing detail. Beginning in the Reagan years, the U.S. government has placed a growing economic burden onto those least able to bear it, declares Johnston (Perfectly Legal: The Covert Campaign to Rig Our Tax System to Benefit the Super Rich-and Cheat Everybody Else, 2003, etc.). It subsidizes the prosperous through tax breaks and other giveaways while stripping away protections for consumers, retirees, workers and investors. Starting with the sordid story of an exclusive Oregon golf course whose wealthy patrons enjoy recreation indirectly paid for by taxpayers, Johnston details dozens of giveaways, demonstrating beyond doubt that while government policies have made life much easier for those at the very top of the income pyramid, the great majority have it much worse than ever before. Examples range from the infamous-electricity deregulation, the collapse of Enron and the resulting astronomical spikes in the cost of power-to the obscure. In the latter category is Cabela's, a sporting-goods behemoth that convinced the citizens of tiny Hamburg, Pa., to grant it an exemption from property and sales taxes in exchange for locating a new megastore in their community. The total subsidy: some $8,000 for each man, woman and child in the community. Stories like these are no longer shocking, and Johnston fails to reach beyond sensationalism to solutions. In a final chapter, he suggests that citizens embrace democratic principles, but is disappointingly vague on how that might manifest itself in policies that would right the sinking ship he so vividly describes. Without solutions, thisremains little more than a list of grievances.

Kirkus Reviews

Here's a shocking novel with an amazing plot. Donald Trump, Ken Lay, and George Steinbrenner all conspire to siphon billions of dollars from the American middle class. Wait—it’s not a novel! It's all true! Hang on to your wallets as NEW YORK TIMES reporter David Cay Johnston documents the various "corporate welfare" ploys used by sports franchises, retailers, megacorps, and anybody else who knows how to parlay a bad balance sheet into political patronage. The rich don't just get richer—they get way richer. Johnston narrates his own work with a newscaster's tone and perspective. His direct tone keeps listeners engaged throughout. R.W.S. © AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine

JUN/JUL 08 - AudioFile