Free Lunch: How the Wealthiest Americans Enrich Themselves at Government Expense (and Stick You with the Bill)
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Free Lunch: How the Wealthiest Americans Enrich Themselves at Government Expense (and Stick You with the Bill) Customer Reviews
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♥♥♥♥♥
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Exposing How the Rules Favor the Few
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There's a saying that "He who has the gold makes the rules." This book proves how true this is. Those few who have the gold have learned how to game the political system to benefit them at the expense of the many. Part of that gaming is to denigrate opponents as communists or socialists. "Surely," they say, "you believe in free market economics."
Well, yes, as a matter of fact I do, but not how our political system is allowing those economics to be practiced. How revealing to discover a book providing proof of the hypocrisy of those who would advocate self reliance in all things economic. I heard a speaker say once that we have a free market economy fueled by greed and that greed must be regulated. He was as correct as Johnston is.
Chapter 22 on health care should be read by all Americans before this 2008 election for its clarification of the nature of the issue.
Chapter 26 substantiates how much the greed has been allowed to run amuck at the expense of the middle class. Doubtless there are Americans today who are not doing well because of the choices they have made in their life. Those Americans are often pointed to with the comment that "Surely you don't want to take money from people doing well to give it to those people." As this chapter proves, this is a red herring. What we should want (and need) is a level economic playing field.
For those who wring their hands and say there is nothing we can do, that those with the money have all the power, I say this. Johnston points that the number of people where wealth is concentrated is about 3 million. That means there are 297 million of the rest of us (not all of us can vote, of course) to vote for a change in the rules. That means the rest of us can change things if we can achieve a consensus in what needs to be changed and how to change it.
Speaking of the rules, I echo Johnston on page 287 in my own way. We are having the issues we are because we have forgotten (if we ever knew them in the first place) the purpose, rules and definitions of our political system.
Several reviewers have commented they find Johnston's solutions to our ills to be inadequate. That's like saying you want to find a way to lose weight that will let you overeat and never exercise and Johnston doesn't offer that. At some point, you must accept personal responsibility for things as they are and making the changes to gain things as you want them to be. That responsibility begins with gaining the clarity of knowledge a book like Johnston's offers and continues with other resources that offer a factual review of the purpose, rules and definitions I mentioned before.
If you want to get rid of the economic "kick me hard" sign on your back, begin by reading this book and tell others to do the same.
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Free Lunch: How the Wealthiest Americans Enrich Themselves at Government Expense (and Stick You with the Bill) Books In Print, Audio Books.