As the former Editor-in-Chief of National Lampoon Magazine, P.J. O'Rourke is a name held near and dear to my heart.  And when a new book comes out with his name on it, I have to admit it’s a little difficult to read it without the same expectations I had slouched in the back row of Economics 101 with the latest issue of my favorite periodical.  These days, National Lampoon is all but gone.  Thankfully, though, P.J. is not.    

Far from it.  O'Rourke's latest book entitled Eat the Rich is one of his best works to date.  It’s a first-hand account of the world's economic state of affairs, from Wall Street (good capitalism) to Albania (bad capitalism), Sweden (good socialism) to Cuba (bad socialism), and beyond.  All with more than a grain of sarcasm, of course.  But also with more useful information than I ever gleaned from Economics 101.

The book's subtitle might make you chuckle at first glance, particularly as you're reading the first chapter in which O'Rourke makes it clear that he’s no economist and he’s proud of it.  But get a few chapters into this book and you realize you're learning global economics, something both revealing and entertaining. 

What makes this book work is O'Rourke's real life encounters during his travels to Cuba, Albania, Sweden, Russia and a few other subject countries.  For example, while in Albania investigating the pyramid schemes which devastated this country's economy, O'Rourke reveals an explanation from one of the locals: "People did not believe these were real pyramid schemes.…  They knew so much money could not be made honestly.  They thought there was smuggling and money laundering involved to make these great profits."  O'Rourke then writes, "The Albanians didn't believe they were the victims of a scam.  They believed they were the perpetrators - this being so different from the beliefs of certain Wall Street bull-market investors in the United States."

While in Cuba, O'Rourke observes, "Nighttime was better in Havana.  The city had so few lights that after dark, I hardly noticed the electrical blackouts.  It looked liked nobody lived there.  Since hardly anybody wants to, it was a fitting look.…  The private restaurants were allowed no more than 12 seats, and only family members could be employed.  This was as far as the Cuban government had been willing to go with capitalism among its own citizens.  It will be interesting to see how this model works if it's applied to other free enterprise undertakings, such as airlines.  Mom will begin beverage service as soon as Junior gets the landing gear up."

O’Rourke is a master of wit, both sophisticated and sophomoric.  But there is more to this book if you’re interested.  O’Rourke identifies the fundamental objectives of his book early on, one of these being to answer the question, “Why do some places prosper and thrive, while others just suck?”  If this question sounds insincere, and who could blame our suspicions, it is not.  After running us through the spectrum of world economies, making us think and snicker often along the way, O’Rourke presents us with some convincing arguments for global improvement. 

In the end, O’Rourke portrays his image of a better world, and what we need to do to get there.  The image is somewhat Utopian at points (“CARE packages will contain oyster forks and truffles.”), but consider more seriously O’Rourke’s logic, including his socioeconomic analysis of the Tenth Commandment: Don’t covet your neighbor’s stuff, go get your own!

O’Rourke’s bottom line is that wealth is good, poverty is bad, and the differential wouldn’t be such an issue if our third-world governments focused more on what they could do for themselves and less on eating the rich.  Forget oyster forks and truffles.  Just getting the ball rolling would be a blessed achievement for most of the world.