Flat Broke

Weekend reading included: Flat Broke in the Free Market: How Globalization Fleeced Working People, by Jon Jeter. 2009.

This was an interesting look at policies worldwide which are making the rich richer and making the middle-class and poor struggle even more. For instance, the wholesale sell-off of public schools, public hospitals, and basically any public land at all, by politicians to developers.

Instead of having a school which brings in zero tax revenue, you can sell that land to a developer for pennies and as soon as they "redevelop" the acreage into condos or shopping malls, you get not only whatever the developer has paid you to get the deal, but a constant revenue stream.

The international examples of water and power companies being sold by countries to private enterprise, and the resulting price rises for the commodity as these private companies use their position as a monopoly to ensure profitability, details the ill effects on the poor and middle class as costs of living rise by hundreds of percents a year.

There were a few happy examples of people triumphing over greedy politicians and forcing change. Overall though, Topiary is not recommending this book because it was just too depressing.

Moo!