Free Lunch: How the Wealthiest Americans Enrich Themselves at Government Expense (and Stick You with the Bill)
Looking for a light, easy read, that will enrich and entertain your acumen? Free Lunch: How the Wealthiest Americans Enrich Themselves at Government Expense (and Stick You with the Bill)
Johnston’s book is concise, detailed, informative, witty, and very unsettling. Be careful while reading if you suffer from high blood pressure. If you’ve just eaten your lunch then be ready to lose it. Be prepared to be apalled as you identify the many faces of corporate welfare, while the pockets of the masses are picked shamelessly.
David Cay Johnston has summed it all up in a nutshell — how the connected have rigged the system to create fortunes. There’s no book that’s going to cover in detail all of the corruption in the United States, but Free Lunch does blow the whistle on a number of stories.
Unearth how public parks are being destroyed in order to build sports stadiums.
Discover how big business creates monopolies while shattering the dreams of small business. Gain insight on how substantial corporations get tax subsidies to pay for the construction of new buildings.
And there’s one particular example where Johnston explains about the fortune that George W. Bush made from the sale of the Texas Rangers. This is a nice little extravaganza where a new stadium for the Rangers was paid for by a sales tax that was subsidized by the taxpayers.
“The investors Bush assembled paid $86 million for the Rangers. They sold nine years later for $250 million. The $164 million profit was $38.5 million less than the subsidy.”
And if W. hadn’t done enough damage with the sales tax handout, he would stand even more to gain from taxes on the opposite end of the spectrum. After he sold his part of the Texas Rangers, he paid a different percentage tax rate from the profits ($16.9 million worth) than he should have.
“In spite of this clear directive (the IRS issued in 1993), Bush treated the entire $16.9 million from the Rangers deal as a long-term capital gain. He paid only 20 percent on such gains (instead of the 42.5 percent which was the normal rate for compensation at the time). The result was that after paying taxes Bush pocketed $3.7 million more than the law, and the IRS directive, seem to allow. Treating such compensation as capital gains is, however, widespread and not challenged by the IRS.”
Not bad for a $600,000 investment, especially taken into consideration that Bush borrowed it from others, eh? And there’s much more to the Bush-Ranger story which is told in the book.
If you’re ready for an eye opening book that fills in the gaps where the academic fictional has conveniently excluded, this is the one for you. David Cay Johnston is a brilliant author, and Free Lunch
This is an exceptional read for those that are willing to take the time to fan the pages.
