Summary of David Cay Johnston's The Fine Print

Everest Media

Description

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book.
Sample Book Insights:
#1 The telephone company executives Adam Leipzig met with told him that their corporate strategy was to charge at least $100 a month from each client household within a few years. This is exactly what happened.
#2 In the 1980s, politicians and pundits said that the cost of telephone service would fall thanks to competition. But in the last decade of the twentieth century, even after adjusting for inflation, telephone costs grew fourfold.
#3 The publicly switched telephone network, as it was known in the industry, was upgraded for emergency calls to 911. Then it was upgraded again with ANI so that emergency dispatch centers would know the numbers of callers. The cost of ALI was justified, as it saved the lives of many people in the midst of medical emergencies or assaults.
#4 The cost of having a phone line installed in your home or business is now separate from the cost of using that line. Customers must pay to fix any wires inside their homes or businesses that get wet or gnawed by rodents.

Sujets

• Politique
• Général
• Industrie

Informations

• Publié par: Everest Media LLC
• Date de parution: 23 mars 2022
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781669358268
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Insights on David Cay Johnston's The Fine Print
Contents Insights from Chapter 1 Insights from Chapter 2 Insights from Chapter 3 Insights from Chapter 4 Insights from Chapter 5 Insights from Chapter 6 Insights from Chapter 7 Insights from Chapter 8 Insights from Chapter 9 Insights from Chapter 10 Insights from Chapter 11 Insights from Chapter 12 Insights from Chapter 13 Insights from Chapter 14 Insights from Chapter 15 Insights from Chapter 16 Insights from Chapter 17 Insights from Chapter 18 Insights from Chapter 19 Insights from Chapter 20 Insights from Chapter 21 Insights from Chapter 22 Insights from Chapter 23 Insights from Chapter 24 Insights from Chapter 25
Insights from Chapter 1

#1

The telephone company executives Adam Leipzig met with told him that their corporate strategy was to charge at least $100 a month from each client household within a few years. This is exactly what happened.

#2

In the 1980s, politicians and pundits said that the cost of telephone service would fall thanks to competition. But in the last decade of the twentieth century, even after adjusting for inflation, telephone costs grew fourfold.

#3

The publicly switched telephone network, as it was known in the industry, was upgraded for emergency calls to 911. Then it was upgraded again with ANI so that emergency dispatch centers would know the numbers of callers. The cost of ALI was justified, as it saved the lives of many people in the midst of medical emergencies or assaults.

#4

The cost of having a phone line installed in your home or business is now separate from the cost of using that line. Customers must pay to fix any wires inside their homes or businesses that get wet or gnawed by rodents.

#5

The government does not collect a penny from the network charge. All the money goes to the phone companies.

#6

The telephone and cable companies have done a great job of building only what they wanted and where they wanted, while shoving the cost on to their captive customers.

#7

The promise of cheap, competitive, and unlimited telecommunications service has been turned into a reality of expensive, monopolistic, and limited service. This is just one part of the larger transformation in the American economy since the 1970s.

#8

State legislatures, presidents, and governors have all approved these laws, and the courts have upheld them. They effectively gut state constitutional provisions and laws banning gifts to business.

#9

American corporations are given the freedom to gouge their customers, shortchange their workers, and erect barriers to fair play due to the fact that so little of the news focuses on the private, government-approved mechanisms by which price gouging is employed to redistribute income upward.

#10

I want to provide readers with a different perspective on news, which is typically reported from an investor point of view. I will cover topics such as the machinations used to inflate profits through a regulation that imposes a tax that does not exist, and how I got this legalized theft stopped.
Insights from Chapter 2

#1

The modern corporation is an immortal, amoral being that exists to serve the interests of its shareholders. It can exist forever, and it has no conscience.

#2

While limiting liability has helped businesses thrive, it has also obscured a corporation’s responsibility to function for the benefit of society. The greater good has become an idea that’s thousands of years old, but in the recent past corporations have been permitted to lose sight of that important notion.

#3

The corporation has become a for-profit entity that exists to make a profit, regardless of the consequences. We need to recognize the corporation for what it is and what it is not. We need to get the economic and other benefits that a profit-making corporation can provide, but not allow it to distort our economy or diminish our society.

#4

The history of business regulation in the United States is long and complex, but it all started with the Code of Hammurabi, which was created nearly four thousand years ago in Sumeria. It regulated loans and their repayment, as well as the conduct of women who owned taverns.

#5

The Greeks also invented democracy, but also progressive taxation. The rich do not deserve any extra voice in government, according to Aristotle, because one man, one vote, applies to everyone equally.

#6

The voices of giant enterprises, such as General Electric, ExxonMobil, Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp, and Citigroup, all motivate governments. They also influence who gets a chance at running for public office.

#7

The poor have become poorer, and the rich get richer. The median wage has stagnated for more than a decade, and the top 1 percent of the top 1 percent have far more money than they could ever spend.

#8

The American economy is growing extremely fast, but not enough jobs are being created to keep up with the growing population. As a result, America’s top workers are earning more and more while the bottom are getting pink slips and having to go without health insurance.

#9

The American Revolution was not a protest against high taxes, but rather a protest against a tax exemption intended to bail out investors in the British East India Company.

#10

The idea that corporations are people has been proven to be dangerous, as it allows them to have political rights that they don’t already have.
Insights from Chapter 3

#1