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Howard Hughes has always fascinated the public with his mixture of
secrecy, dashing lifestyle, and reclusiveness. This is the book
that breaks through the image to get at the man. Originally
published under the title Empire: The Life, Legend, and Madness of
Howard Hughes.
American: Who Really Pays the Taxes? is a disturbing, eye-opening
look at a tax system gone out of control. Originally designed to
spread the cost of government fairly, our tax code has turned into
a gold mine of loopholes and giveaways manipulated by the
influential and wealthy for their own benefit.
If you feel as if the tax laws are rigged against the average
taxpayer, you're right:
-- Middle-income taxpayers pick up a growing share of the nation's
tax bill, while our most profitable corporations pay little or
nothing.
-- Your tax status is effected more by how many lawyers and
lobbyists you can afford than by your resources or needs.
-- Our best-known and most successful companies pay more taxes to
foreign governments than to our own.
-- Cities and states start bidding wars to attract business through
tax breaks -- taxes made up for by the American taxpayer.
Who really pays the taxes? Barlett and Stelle, authors of the
best-selling america: What Went Wrong?, offer a graphic expose of
what's wrong with our tax system, how it got that way, and how to
fix it.
Exposing the most controversial, little-known practices of
America's most flawed system, "Time" magazine's Pulitzer
Prize-winning investigative team pulls back the curtain on the
health care industry to explain exactly how things grew so out of
control.
Dirty examination and operating rooms in doctor's offices and
hospitals . . . Health care executives pulling in millions in
bonuses for denying treatment to the sick . . . More than 100
million people with inadequate or no medical coverage . . . This
may sound like the predicament of a third-world nation, but this is
America's health care reality today. The U.S. spends more on health
care than" any other nation," yet our benefits are shrinking and
life expectancy is shorter here than in countries that spend
significantly less per capita. Meanwhile, HMOs, pharmaceutical
companies, and hospital chains reap tremendous profits, while
politicians--beholden to insurers and drug companies--enact
legislation for the benefit of the few rather than the many, while
the entire system is on the verge of collapse.
In Critical Condition, award-winning investigative journalists
Donald L. Barlett and James B. Steele expose the horror of what
health care in America has become. They profile patients and
doctors trapped by the system and offer startling personal stories
that illuminate what's gone wrong. Doctors tell of being
second-guessed and undermined by health care insurers; nurses
recount chilling tales of hospital meltdowns; patients explain how
they've been victimized by a system that is meant to care for them.
Drug companies profit by selling pills in the same manner that
Madison Avenue sells soap, while Wall Street rakes in billions by
building up and then tearing down health care businesses. And
politicians pass legislation perpetuating the injustices and
out-right fraud the system encourages.
By analyzing the industry and offering an insightful prescription
for getting it back on the right track, Critical Condition is an
enormously compelling investigative work that addresses the
concerns of every American.
Selected by Library Journal as one of the hundred best books in
science and technology for 1985. This book is an outgrowth of a
series of articles that appeared in the Philadelphia Inquirer in
November 1983. For eighteen months, the authors traveled some
20,000 miles, interviewing dozens of people and assembling more
than 125,000 pages of documents. These included local, state, and
federal government reports, state and federal court records,
corporate files, congressional hearing transcripts, scientific
studies, and internal memoranda of public agencies and private
businesses. The resulting newspaper series provoked a much broader
reaction than we had anticipated. In response to requests for
copies of the articles, more than 25,000 reprints were sent to
individuals and organizations in more than forty states and several
foreign countries. Many of those who wrote urged the authors to
expand the newspaper series into a book. In doing so, they updated
the material and added new information, including sections on
military waste, foreign reprocessing, and uranium mill tailings. We
were tempted to delve into other areas, such as the design and
construction of reactors and the economics of nuclear power. But we
focused instead on waste-the amount produced, past efforts to
manage it, and the politics of its disposal.
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