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Written & read by P.J. O'Rourke - Abridged Nonfiction - 2 CASSETTES - 3 hours

Publisher, Random House (1998)

In P.J. O'Rourke's classic bestseller Parliament of Whores, he attempted to explain the entire United States government. In Eat the Rich, he takes on an even broader subject, but one that is dear to us all - wealth.

What is it? How do you get it? Or, as P.J. says, "Why do some places prosper and thrive, while others just suck?"

The starting point is Wall Street. P.J. takes the listener on a scary hilarious, and enlightening visit to the New York Stock Exchange, then sets off on a world tour to investigate funny economics. Having seen "good" capitalism on Wall Street, he looks at "bad" capitalism in Albania, views "good" socialism in Sweden, and endures "bad" socialism in Cuba. Head reeling, he describes to tackle that Econ 101 course he avoided in college. The result is the only astute presentation of the principles of economics that can make you laugh on purpose.

Armed with theory, P.J. ventures to Russia, Tanzania, Hong Kong, and ends up in Shanghai, observing a top-down transition to capitalism.

P.J.'s conclusion in a nutshell: the free market is ugly and stupid, like going to the mall; the unfree market is just as ugly and just as stupid, except there's nothing in the mall and if you don't go there they shoot you.

From Publisher's Weekly: Having chewed up and spat out the politically correct (All the Troubles in the World) and the U.S. government (Parliament of Whores), O'Rourke takes a more global tack. Here, he combines something of Michael Palin's Pole to Pole, a soup on of Swift's A Modest Proposal and Keynesian garnish in an effort to find out why some places are "prosperous and thriving while others just suck."

Stymied by the "puerile and impenetrable" prose of condescending college texts, O'Rourke set forth on a two-year worldwide tour of economic practice (or mal-). He begins amid the "moil and tumult" of Wall Street ("Good Capitalism") before turning to dirt-poor Albania, where, in an example of "Bad Capitalism," free market is the freedom to gamble stupidly. "Good Socialism" (Sweden) and "Bad Socialism" (Cuba) are followed by O'Rourke's always perverse but often perversely accurate take on Econ 101 ("microeconomics is about money you don't have, and macroeconomics is about money the government is out of"). Four subsequent chapters reportedly offer case studies of economic principles, except that Russia, Tanzania, Hong Kong and Shanghai all seem to prove that economic theory is just that. There's lots of trademark O'Rourke humor ("you can puke on the train," he says of a trip through Russia, "you can cook tripe on alcohol stoves and make reeking picnics of smoked fish and goat cheese, but you can't smoke"). There's also the feeling that despite (or maybe because of) his lack of credentials, he's often right. O'Rourke proves that money can be funny without being counterfeit.