A Nation of Moochers: America's Addiction to Getting Something for Nothing

Front Cover
St. Martin's Publishing Group, Jan 17, 2012 - Political Science - 320 pages

We have experienced a shift in American character: we've become a nation of moochers. Increasingly dependent on the efforts of others over our own, Americans are free to freeload. From the corporate bailouts on Wall Street to the alarming increases in personal default and dependency, from questionable tax exemptions to enormous pension, healthcare, and other entitlement costs, the new moocher culture cuts across lines of class, race, and private and public sectors. And the millions that plan and behave sensibly, only to bail out the profligate? They're angry.

Charles Sykes' argument is not against compassion or legitimate charity, but targets the new moocher culture, in which self-reliance and personal responsibility have given way to mass grasping after handouts. A Nation of Moochers is a persuasively argued and entertaining rallying cry for Americans who are tired of playing by the rules and paying for those who don't.

 

Contents

Title Page
A Nation of Moochers
A Moocher Checklist
Moochers Dilemma
The Joys of Dependency
Addicted to OPM Other Peoples Money
Want Need Right
I Piggy Bank
Walk Away from Your Mortgage
An Interactive Readers Exercise
The Bank of Mom and
MiddleClass Suckers
Why Get a Job?
An Abbreviated History of Mooching
Whats Fair?
Step Away from the Trough

Crony Capitalism Big Business at the Trough
The Two Americas
Lessons in Moral Hazard
Bailouts for Idiots How to Make Out Big by Screwing
Notes
Index
Also by Charles J Sykes
Copyright

Other editions - View all

Common terms and phrases

About the author (2012)

CHARLES J. SYKES is senior fellow at the Wisconsin Policy Research Institute and a talk show host at WTMJ radio in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He has written for The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and USA Today and is the author of six previous books: A Nation of Victims, Dumbing Down Our Kids, Profscam, The Hollow Men, The End of Privacy, and 50 Rules Kids Won't Learn in School.

Bibliographic information