GREEDY BASTARDS

A diatribe against bankers, corrupt politicians, lobbyists, Wall Street traders and others "greedy bastards."

MSNBC host Ratigan takes aim at American citizens who he presumes will no longer tolerate being robbed of their money by those who enrich themselves at the expense of society as a whole. The author explains how the greedy bastards wrested control of the health-care system, the energy-supply pipeline and other sectors, and he preaches that ordinary citizens must become informed—and then enraged—before they are moved to act against those robbing them. Some of Ratigan's solutions are relatively specific—e.g., he proposes a revision to the tax code that would encourage long-term investment rather than short-term extraction of deposits. Ratigan suggests reforming campaign-finance laws, blocking the revolving door between service in the legislature and service in lobbying firms and altering the ways Congressional districts are redrawn by state legislatures to protect incumbents and disenfranchise minority voters. Not bound by the false theory that the United States is the world's most progressive nation, Ratigan looks to other nations that have found better answers to age-old dilemmas, such as providing high-quality health care at affordable cost to every individual from birth until death. Rather than citing only the solutions found in Canada—often the touchstone of reformers—Ratigan mentions successes throughout Europe and also in Singapore. To underscore his points, the author includes flow charts, cartoons and other reader-friendly touches; unfortunately, he does not provide sufficient sourcing for his arguments.

A pastiche of thinking by other reformers with a thin original Ratigan overlay.