The Big Handout
How Government Subsidies and Corporate Welfare Corrupt the World We Live In and Wreak Havoc on Our Food Bills
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The Big Handout
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Narrated by:
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Bronson Pinchot
About this listen
A riveting exposé of how a little-understood government policy perverts our way of living, making us fatter, poorer, and more unhealthy.
Did you know that subsidized goods often cost us more than we'd pay for them in the free market? In fact, we sometimes pay for goods that will never exist at all. It turns out that the free market in America is anything but. How did a system designed to safeguard American farmers turn into the nation's biggest scam?Most of us don't know what subsidies are and don't think they affect us directly, so we tune out. But they have an enormous impact on all of us. Put simply, a subsidy is a grant by the government to a private business. Cotton, wheat, corn, soy, and oil are the most subsidized commodities in the United States. The Big Handout exposes how artificially lowering the prices of these commodities hurts us and people around the world. Behind the troubling news about fiscal, environmental, and foreign policies is a story about just one thing: subsidies.
In this eye-opening book, New York Times best-selling author Thomas M. Kostigen explores government policies that cost taxpayers $200 billion per year - more than $1,500 per household. He persuasively shows that subsidies are at the root of our most pressing problems as a country - our foreign policy, our health, our food supply, even our money troubles and our expanding waistlines. Revealing just how toxic America's subsidy system has become, The Big Handout is a wake-up call that empowers us to demand change.
Download the accompanying reference guide.©2011 Thomas Kositgen (P)2014 Audible Inc.Listeners also enjoyed...
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-
Story5 out of 5 stars 30
Drawing on findings from leading health researchers as well as conversations with both chemical and organic farmers from coast to coast, Maria Rodale irrefutably outlines the unacceptably high cost of chemical farming on our health and our environment. She traces the genesis of chemical farming and the rise of the immense companies that profit from it, bringing to light the government's role in allowing such practices to flourish.
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5 out of 5 stars
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those in power must read and work upon it.
- By Jaktip on 12-20-17
By: Maria Rodale, and others
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Enough
- Why the World's Poorest Starve in An Age of Plenty
- By: Roger Thurow, Scott Kilman
- Narrated by: Tavia Gilbert
- Length: 11 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 97
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 61
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Story4 out of 5 stars 65
For more than 30 years, humankind has known how to grow enough food to end chronic hunger worldwide. Yet while the Green Revolution succeeded in South America and Asia, it never got to Africa. More than 9 million people every year die of hunger, malnutrition, and related diseases every yearmost of them in Africa and most of them children. More die of hunger in Africa than from AIDS and malaria combined. Now, an impending global food crisis threatens to make things worse.
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3 out of 5 stars
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It's Time For Us To Be More Compassionate
- By James on 07-18-10
By: Roger Thurow, and others
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A Revolution Down on the Farm
- The Transformation of American Agriculture since 1929
- By: Paul K. Conkin
- Narrated by: Kevin Pierce
- Length: 11 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 110
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 98
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Story4 out of 5 stars 98
Humans have been farming for thousands of years, and yet agriculture has undergone more fundamental changes in the past 80 years than in the previous several centuries. In 1900, 30 million American farmers tilled the soil or tended livestock; today there are fewer than 4.5 million farmers who feed a population four times larger than it was at the beginning of the century.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Excellent review of farming history in US
- By Joanne on 01-26-14
By: Paul K. Conkin
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Citizen Coke
- The Making of Coca-Cola Capitalism
- By: Bartow J. Elmore
- Narrated by: William Hughes
- Length: 11 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 398
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 347
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 349
Outsourcing and a trim corporate profile enabled Coke to scale up production of a low-price beverage and realize huge profits. But the costs shed by Coke have fallen on the public at large. Coke now uses an annual 79 billion gallons of water, an increasingly precious global resource, and its reliance on corn syrup has helped fuel our obesity crisis. Bartow J. Elmore explores Coke through its ingredients, showing how the company secured massive quantities of coca leaf, caffeine, sugar, and other inputs.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Highly Recommend
- By Laura on 02-22-20
By: Bartow J. Elmore
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Cheap
- The High Cost of Discount Culture
- By: Ellen Ruppel Shell
- Narrated by: Lorna Raver
- Length: 11 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 94
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 49
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Story4 out of 5 stars 47
From the shuttered factories of the rust belt to the look-alike strip malls of the sun belt---and almost everywhere in between---America has been transformed by its relentless fixation on low price. This pervasive yet little examined obsession is arguably the most powerful and devastating market force of our time---the engine of globalization, outsourcing, planned obsolescence, and economic instability in an increasingly unsettled world.
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4 out of 5 stars
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You Get What You Pay For?
- By Roy on 07-26-09
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Fast Food Nation
- The Dark Side of the All-American Meal
- By: Eric Schlosser
- Narrated by: Rick Adamson
- Length: 8 hrs and 56 mins
- Abridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 2,036
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 801
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Story4 out of 5 stars 800
To a degree both engrossing and alarming, the story of fast food is the story of postwar America. Fast Food Nation is a groundbreaking work of investigation and cultural history that may change the way America thinks about the way it eats.
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1 out of 5 stars
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Uncritical alarmist rant
- By Mark Freeman on 12-23-03
By: Eric Schlosser
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Farmageddon
- The True Cost of Cheap Meat
- By: Philip Lymbery, Isabel Oakeshott
- Narrated by: Julian Elfer
- Length: 13 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 184
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 167
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Story4 out of 5 stars 170
Farm animals have been disappearing from our fields as the production of food has become a global industry. We no longer know for certain what is entering the food chain and what we are eating - as the UK horsemeat scandal demonstrated. We are reaching a tipping point as the farming revolution threatens our countryside, health, and the quality of our food wherever we live in the world.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Excellent insight of industrial farming
- By Grazyna on 04-19-14
By: Philip Lymbery, and others
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The Rational Optimist
- How Prosperity Evolves
- By: Matt Ridley
- Narrated by: L. J. Ganser
- Length: 13 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 2,453
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,994
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 1,999
Life is getting better at an accelerating rate. Food availability, income, and life span are up; disease, child mortality, and violence are down all across the globe. Though the world is far from perfect, necessities and luxuries alike are getting cheaper; population growth is slowing; Africa is following Asia out of poverty; the Internet, the mobile phone, and container shipping are enriching people's lives as never before.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Personal
- By Robert F. Jones on 09-15-17
By: Matt Ridley
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Fifty Inventions That Shaped the Modern Economy
- By: Tim Harford
- Narrated by: Roger Davis
- Length: 9 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 367
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 314
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 312
Fifty Inventions That Shaped the Modern Economy paints an epic picture of change in an intimate way by telling the stories of the tools, people, and ideas that had far-reaching consequences for all of us. From the plough to artificial intelligence, from Gillette's disposable razor to IKEA's Billy bookcase, best-selling author and Financial Times columnist Tim Harford recounts each invention's own curious, surprising, and memorable story.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Thought provoking
- By Paul Norris on 09-10-17
By: Tim Harford
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The Undercover Economist
- By: Tim Harford
- Narrated by: Robert Ian Mackenzie
- Length: 10 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 542
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 326
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Story4 out of 5 stars 324
Author of the extremely popular "Dear Economist" column in Financial Times, Tim Harford reveals the economics behind everyday phenomena in this highly entertaining and informative book. Can a book about economics be fun to read? It can when Harford takes the reins, using his trademark wit to explain why it costs an arm and a leg to buy a cappuccino and why it's nearly impossible to purchase a decent used car.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Everyone needs to know this.
- By Paul Norwood on 04-24-06
By: Tim Harford
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How to Avoid a Climate Disaster
- The Solutions We Have and the Breakthroughs We Need
- By: Bill Gates
- Narrated by: Wil Wheaton, Bill Gates
- Length: 7 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 4,603
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 3,878
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 3,845
Bill Gates shares what he's learned in more than a decade of studying climate change and investing in innovations to address the problems, and sets out a vision for how the world can build the tools it needs to get to zero greenhouse gas emissions. Bill Gates explains why he cares so deeply about climate change and what makes him optimistic that the world can avoid the most dire effects of the climate crisis. Gates says, "We can work on a local, national, and global level to build the technologies, businesses, and industries to avoid the worst impacts of climate change."
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4 out of 5 stars
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Be curious, not furious
- By Axel Merk on 02-20-21
By: Bill Gates
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Apocalypse Never
- Why Environmental Alarmism Hurts Us All
- By: Michael Shellenberger
- Narrated by: Stephen Graybill
- Length: 12 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 2,998
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 2,578
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Story5 out of 5 stars 2,568
Michael Shellenberger has been fighting for a greener planet for decades. He helped save the world’s last unprotected redwoods. He co-created the predecessor to today’s Green New Deal. And he led a successful effort by climate scientists and activists to keep nuclear plants operating, preventing a spike of emissions. But in 2019, as some claimed "billions of people are going to die", contributing to rising anxiety, including among adolescents, Shellenberger decided that he needed to speak out to separate science from fiction.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Environmentalist with integrity!
- By Wayne on 07-01-20
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The Meat Racket
- The Secret Takeover of America's Food Business
- By: Christopher Leonard
- Narrated by: John Pruden
- Length: 11 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 205
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 176
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 177
How much do you know about the meat on your dinner plate? Journalist Christopher Leonard spent more than a decade covering the country's biggest meat companies, including four years as the national agribusiness reporter for the Associated Press. Now he delivers the first comprehensive look inside the industrial meat system, exposing how a handful of companies executed an audacious corporate takeover of the nation's meat supply.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Hits the nail on the head.
- By Anonymous 8888 on 02-04-15
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It's Better Than It Looks
- By: Gregg Easterbrook
- Narrated by: Oliver Wyman
- Length: 14 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 61
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 53
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 52
Most people who pay attention to the news would tell you that 2017 is one of the worst years in recent memory. We're facing a series of deeply troubling, even existential problems: fascism, terrorism, environmental collapse, racial and economic inequality, and more. Yet this narrative misses something important: by almost every meaningful measure, the modern world is better than it ever has been. In the United States, disease, crime, discrimination, and most forms of pollution are in long-term decline, while longevity and education keep rising.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Too political
- By Anonymous User on 07-12-18
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China, Inc.
- By: Ted C. Fishman
- Narrated by: Alan Sklar
- Length: 13 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 315
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 75
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Story4 out of 5 stars 78
China today is visible everywhere: In the news, in the economic pressures battering America, in the workplace, and in every trip to the store. Provocative, timely, and essential, this dramatic account of China's growing dominance as an industrial super-power by journalist Ted C. Fishman explains how the profound shift in the global economic order has occurred, and why it already affects us all.
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1 out of 5 stars
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Just read the Amazon reviews befor buying it ...
- By Dan on 08-10-05
By: Ted C. Fishman
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A Little History of the World
- By: E. H. Gombrich
- Narrated by: Ralph Cosham
- Length: 9 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 4,046
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 3,395
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 3,381
E. H. Gombrich's world history, an international best seller now available in English for the first time, is a text dominated not by dates and facts but by the sweep of experience across the centuries, a guide to humanity's achievements, and an acute witness to its frailties.
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5 out of 5 stars
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an enlightening book; very well read
- By A.B.Oxford on 06-03-06
By: E. H. Gombrich
What listeners say about The Big Handout
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Hermdog
- 02-05-22
Interesting content, wide reaching
I was interested in farm subsidies after listening to books by Thomas Sowell. This is not an economics book, but it is a policy one. I was a bit thrown-off by blanket references to the ills of corporate America and Wall Street greed. However, I found the statements about how subsidies affect third world countries, the kinds of foods we eat and sweeteners we use, the types of fishing we engage in, and the way we treat the soil/ land to be very interesting. Overall, I learned from this book, but not in the ways I expected to learn. It was a worthwhile listen.
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