[Fwd: LFB Book News: EAT THE RICH]

[S�ren]

This may be preaching to the choir,  but for anyone who doesn't know
about http://www.laissezfaire.org ...

To: booknews at laissezfaire.org
Subject: LFB Book News: EAT THE RICH
From: Russell Hanneken <russell at laissezfaire.org>
Date: Thu, 10 Sep 1998 17:31:38 -0700

=================================================================
Laissez Faire Books  -  Book News  -  September 10, 1998
Please forward this message to anyone who might be interested.
=================================================================

First 350 with autographed bookplates!

A grand slam from P. J. O'Rourke, the best political humorist
since H. L. Mencken

			  EAT THE RICH
			by P. J. O'Rourke
		 (Atlantic Monthly Press, 1998)

		    HU7872 (hardcover) 246p.
		    Publisher's price: $24.00
		    Our price normally $16.95
	  SPECIAL SALE PRICE, LIMITED TIME ONLY: $14.41

(reviewed by Jim Powell)

Everything P. J. O'Rourke writes makes you smile, but I'd rate
EAT THE RICH as his best book, better even than his super-seller
PARLIAMENT OF WHORES.  The political content is very high, and
the book is loaded with great lines.  Open to a page, any page,
and you'll soon find something wonderful--not just wit, but
passion as well.

O'Rourke offers uproarious commentary about fashionable
politicians, intellectuals and dogmas in Albania, Sweden, Cuba,
Russia, Tanzania and Shanghai as well as the United States.  
A sampler:

    "I had one fundamental question about economics: Why are some
    places prosperous and thriving while others just suck?  It's
    not a matter of brains.  No part of the earth (with the
    possible exception of Brentwood) is dumber than Beverly
    Hills, and the residents are wading in gravy.  Meanwhile in
    Russia, where chess is a spectator sport, they're boiling
    stones for soup."

    "Microeconomics concerns things that economists are
    specifically wrong about, while macroeconomics concerns
    things economists are wrong about generally.  Or, to be more
    technical, microeconomics is about money you don't have, and
    macroeconomics is about money the government is out of."

    "Government does not cause affluence.  Citizens of
    totalitarian countries have plenty of government and nothing
    of anything else."

    "And technology provides no guarantee of creature comforts.
    The most wretched locales in the world are well-supplied with
    complex and up-to-date technology--in the form of weapons."

    "Nationalization does to goods and services what divorce does
    to male parents--suddenly they're absent most of the time and
    useless the rest."

    "Altruism towards strangers is mostly a sentimental and
    fleeting thing, a small check dashed off to Save the
    Children.  Twenty billion dollars worth of it is rare.  In
    the Cold War days, of course, we were giving money to
    Tanzania on the theory of: 'Pay them to be socialist so they
    won't be communist and figure out what the difference is
    later.'  But now, I'm afraid, the ugly truth is that we care
    about Tanzanians because they have cool animals."

    "The Russian stuff is no good.  Even the smallest, simplest
    items stink.  The way you use a Russian match is: After you
    strike it, you put it back in the matchbox.  It's as likely
    to work as any of the other matches in there.  In the old
    days the soda pop tasted like soap, the soap lathered like
    toilet paper, the toilet paper could be used to sand
    furniture, the furniture was as comfortable as a pile of
    canned goods, the canned goods had the flavor of a
    Solzhenitsyn novel, and a Solzhenitsyn novel got you arrested
    if you owned one."

    "How a peaceful, uncrowded place with ample wherewithal stays
    poor is hard to explain.  How a conflict-ridden, grossly
    over-populated place with no resources whatsoever gets rich
    is simple.  The British colonial government turned Hong Kong
    into an economic miracle by doing nothing."

    "So if wealth is not a world-wide round-robin of purse
    snatching, and if the thing that makes you rich doesn't make
    me poor, why should we care about fairness at all?  We
    shouldn't."

    "If we want the whole world to be rich, we need to start
    loving wealth.  In the difference between poverty and plenty,
    the problem is the poverty and not the difference.  Wealth is
    good."

As these delightful selections suggest, nobody today has a more
gifted pen than P. J. O'Rourke.  You'll love this book.

=================================================================

EAT THE RICH
HU7872 (hardcover) 246p.
Publisher's price: $24.00
Our price normally $16.95
SPECIAL SALE PRICE, LIMITED TIME ONLY: $14.41

=================================================================

How to order from Laissez Faire Books:

SALES TAX: 

If we are shipping your order to California, you must pay sales
tax.  To learn the applicable tax rate, contact us, or point your
web browser to <http://laissezfaire.org/2order.html#tax>.

SHIPPING & HANDLING:

For destinations in the US:

  STANDARD SHIPPING (1-3 weeks):

       Merchandise total     Standard shipping price
       $ 0.00 - $24.99                $3.50
       $25.00 - $49.99                $4.50
       $50.00 - $74.99                $5.50
       $75.00 - $99.99                $6.50
       $100 and over                  FREE!

  3-DAY SHIPPING (3 business days, no PO boxes): $9 for the first
  item ($19 if destination is Alaska or Hawaii) plus $2.50 for
  each additional item.

For destinations outside the US:

  SURFACE MAIL (2-8 weeks): $4.50 for the rist item plus $1.50
  for each additional item.

Contact us for other shipping options.

PAYMENT: 

All orders must be prepaid.  Checks or money orders should be
drawn on a US bank and made payable to Laissez Faire Books.  If
paying by credit card, please include both the card number and
the expiration date.  We accept Visa, Mastercard, and Discover.

If you have placed a credit card order before, we can process
your order using the information we have on file (provided it is
up to date).  Please include your name and zip code (or postal
code) so we can find your record.

Members of the Laissez Faire Book Club can pay with funds drawn
from their account.  For more information about the Book Club,
contact us, or point your web browser to
<http://laissezfaire.org/2order.html#bookclub>.

SUBMITTING YOUR ORDER:

BY EMAIL: Address email orders to <orders at laissezfaire.org>.
PGP-encrypted mail is accepted.  For our public key, email
<russell at laissezfaire.org>, or point your web browser to
<http://laissezfaire.org/pubkey.html>.

BY MAIL: Write to Laissez Faire Books, Dept L50, 938 Howard St., 
Ste. 202, San Francisco, CA 94103-4114, USA.

BY PHONE: Call toll free 1-800-326-0996 (US and Canada) or dial 
(415) 541-9780.  Customer service representatives are available 
between 9am and 6pm PACIFIC TIME.

BY FAX: Fax us at (415) 541-0597.

If you'd like to receive our free monthly booklist, please email 
your postal address to <custsvc at laissezfaire.org>.

If you'd like to receive weekly Book News announcements via
email, or if you have any other questions or comments, please
contact Russell at <russell at laissezfaire.org>.

-----------------------------------------------------------------
Russell Hanneken                              Laissez Faire Books
russell at laissezfaire.org                 http://laissezfaire.org/




-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: bin00003.bin
Type: application/octet-stream
Size: 3031 bytes
Desc: "S/MIME Cryptographic Signature"
URL: <https://lists.cpunks.org/pipermail/cypherpunks-legacy/attachments/19980911/ccfbd2fb/attachment.bin>