Free Lunch
Today I finished reading a book entitled Free Lunch by David Cay Johnston.
This book will make you so mad that you could spit. The author explains how in the last 25 years or so the people in the highest income brackets have used the government to enrich themselves at the tune of millions and millions each year.
And they do it the name of free enterprise and competition. Hardly though. What they really do is use the government to take away all the risk and give them all the rewards.
And what is really outrageous is that they also get government to not allow the records of how they do it to be public.
Do you remember how when the new drug plan was being debated it came out that the government knew it would cost more but told the actuary that figured it out he would be fired if he told Congress? He writes about that and other health care issues.
He writes about energy deregulation, box stores that get exhorbitant subsidies to build stores, subsidies to build sports venues, etc. Most often the entire profit of these enterprises is made up of the subsidies.
He has a very interesing chapter on how household alarm companies are making money at the expense of all of us that don’t have alarm systems.
Each chapter infuriated me more. There were a few places where I think he stretched the point a bit but overall he makes a good point.
Now I need to read something more relaxing. I have started The Golden Compass.
February 13th, 2008 at 4:22 pm
Don’t think you will find nearly the fodder in TGC as some would have others believe. Yes, they are fighting against a church. A church that pretty much follows the plan WE WILL MAKE THEM DO WHAT WE SAY . . . which was not the plan endorsed in the council in heaven. So we don’t like that church anyway.
I tried to read it a couple years ago when everyone was saying it was such a great fantasy trilogy. I ended up not being able to finish it. Not because I was offended but because I found it dull. Hasn’t made its way back up my “to read” list.
February 13th, 2008 at 4:43 pm
I actually started reading it in St. Paul but got sidetracked with Free Lunch. I have seen the movie and it was okay. I am not a big fantasy fan. I read some of the Harry Potter but not all of them. I have only read one of the Lord of the Rings. And I don’t care for any of the movies based on those books.
I am still working on Come Be My Light. The letters written my Mother Teresa. That gets to be a bit of a dull read because it is pretty much the same thing page after page after page.
February 13th, 2008 at 5:07 pm
Golden Compass- One of my very favorite books actually. I hope you enjoy it. I have read it at least three times and finally own my own copy. I don’t know that I consider it fantasy in comparison with Lord of the Rings or Harry Potter though. (Not a big Harry Potter fan though). Its more of an adventure story with an interesting ongoing theme behind it.
How do you think Larry H. Miller or Mitt Romney would feel about a book like Free Lunch?
February 13th, 2008 at 5:20 pm
I am not sure what Mitt and Larry would think. Based on the business that Mitt has been in I believe he fits most of what the book describes. I am not sure about Larry Miller. I tend to think he might be more of the old school rugged individualist type. But I could be wrong. And he is in the type of businesses that don’t fit the model for bilkng the government quite as much. Other than he has ag busisnesses and probably gets subsidies. You can check that out yourself at ewg.org.
I have read that there isn’t a day goes by hardly that Miller doesn’t have a deal of some sort going down. And that doen’t includ just selling a car.