内容简介

Free enterprise in America may be heading the way of the drive-in movie theater or the corner soda fountain—soon to be a quaint relic of the past. The threat to American capitalism? The "capitalists" themselves.
From General Motors to General Electric, Boeing to Philip Morris, today's largest corporations have mastered the art of working with government officials at every level to stifle competition. They reap billions through a complex web of higher taxes, stricter regulations, and shameless government handouts. And who foots the bill for the increasingly cozy relationship between big business and big government?
Consumers. Taxpayers. Entrepreneurs. You.
The Big Ripoff pulls back the curtain to show who is strangling America's tradition of free enterprise, how and why they are doing it, and what you can do to help restore free enterprise along with your long-trampled rights as both a consumer and taxpayer. Hard-charging investigative reporter and commentator Timothy Carney will both fascinate and infuriate you with insider tales that include:
A decade after reforming the welfare system for individuals, Congress is making the web of welfare for corporations even more impregnable than ever
How government land grabs—"eminent domain for corporate gain"—are unfairly driving small mom and pop operations out of business
Why cigarette behemoth Philip Morris is stridently leading the war against its own products, and strengthening its tobacco stranglehold in the process
How the controversial "death tax" actually benefits Warren Buffett, Bill Gates, and other billionaires—who are, not coincidentally, its most ardent supporters
How the federal government drives up your gas prices with ethanol mandates and "clean fuel" rules that mostly enrich the biggest refiners and agribusinesses
How Americans pay twice as much for sugar as the rest of world—and the difference lands in the pockets of one very rich, very well-connected family
How the rich vote Republican, but how the very rich consistently back Democratic candidates—and why
Citizens and taxpayers are losing power over their government, and consumers and entrepreneurs are losing control over the economy, thanks to a deadly combination of power-hungry politicians and obliging CEOs. The Big Ripoff takes you deep inside the insidious, incestuous relationship of big business and even bigger government, and reveals how these purported rivals—huge corpora-tions and ambitious government officials?—work together to the detriment of consumers, taxpayers, and entrepreneurs.
作者简介：TIMOTHY P. CARNEY is a freelance investigative reporter, in Washington, D.C. He has worked under veteran political reporter Bob Novak, has served fellowships with the Phillips Foundation and the Competitive Enterprise Institute, and has worked as a reporter at Human Events. Carney has written for the Wall Street Journal, New York Sun, Washington Times, National Review Online, American Spectator, American Conservative, D.C. Examiner, and a handful of other magazines, newspapers, and Web sites.