Book Review: Free Lunch

I have been reading a lot of disturbing books lately. They are disturbing because each one has honed in on particular aspects of our political and economic world. David Cay Johnson's Free Lunch: How the Wealthiest Americans Enrich Themselves at Government Expense (and Stick You with the Bill) certainly fits into this mold. In story after story, he tells how the American taxpayer has been left to foot the bill for this country's wealthiest individuals and corporations -- and they do so legally!!

One of the sections of this well-written and well-researched book that had me shouting at the wall concerns subsidies and sales taxes. In an effort to lure big box stores to our local communities, government often hands over the proceeds of sales taxes to some of the biggest and wealthiest corporations on the planet.

Let's say you are shopping at Wal-Mart or Cabella's Sporting Goods. You fill up your shopping cart with all sorts of gizmos and doodads. Once the sales clerk rings up your many purchases, they add in the sales tax which supposedly goes to your local government to fund all sorts of services. In an alarming number of cases, your tax dollars never make it into the public coffers; the money ends up in the bank account of the big box store where it stays.

Though this book was written in 2007, it remains timely. Most of the laws and regulations Johnson discusses are still on the books! Most of the legal ways the wealthy extract money from the vast majority are still in play!

Here is a short video from the Bill Moyer's Journal in which Moyers and Johnson discuss the book.