A riveting exposé of how a little-understood government policy perverts our way of living, making us fatter, poorer, and more unhealthy.

Did you know that subsidized goods often cost us more than we'd pay for them in the free market? In fact, we sometimes pay for goods that will never exist at all. It turns out that the free market in America is anything but. How did a system designed to safeguard American farmers turn into the nation's biggest scam?Most of us don't know what subsidies are and don't think they affect us directly, so we tune out. But they have an enormous impact on all of us. Put simply, a subsidy is a grant by the government to a private business. Cotton, wheat, corn, soy, and oil are the most subsidized commodities in the United States. The Big Handout exposes how artificially lowering the prices of these commodities hurts us and people around the world. Behind the troubling news about fiscal, environmental, and foreign policies is a story about just one thing: subsidies.

In this eye-opening book, New York Times best-selling author Thomas M. Kostigen explores government policies that cost taxpayers $200 billion per year - more than $1,500 per household. He persuasively shows that subsidies are at the root of our most pressing problems as a country - our foreign policy, our health, our food supply, even our money troubles and our expanding waistlines. Revealing just how toxic America's subsidy system has become, The Big Handout is a wake-up call that empowers us to demand change.