"We may have democracy, or we may have wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can't have both." - Louis Brandeis

Why I picked it up

My friend read it and every time she mentioned it, her eyes would get real big and her mouth would get real small, and she'd just sputter, "man, I ... geez."

Why I finished it

I didn't want to at times. I just got so frustrated and disgusted with these people and the harm they are doing to people. Literal, direct, physical harm to individual people in their employee, and financial, economic harm to every person who is not ultra-wealthy, and harm to the ability of our government to function.

And the motive behind all this harm? As Charles Koch himself explains it, "I just want my fair share. And my share is all of it."

Who I'd recommend it to

Everybody. Required reading.

I'd recommend it to my past self from a couple months ago, back when I started reading Hillbilly Elegy after somebody recommended it to me as a portrait of neo-conservative, pro-Trump America (which it is not).

I was looking to understand how our current political and cultural climate emerged, where its origins are among the people. What I now understand is that it did not emerge naturally from the people, nor did it gain traction from the ground up. It was instead carefully and painstakingly crafted over several decades of buying influence in public education, funding fake grassroots movements, and forcing plutocratic ideals into the center stage of our national politics.