Part “economics for dummies” and part travel guide, Eat the Rich not only tries to (and to a great extent succeeds) explain economics to folks like me, while at the same time trying to explain the bigger question – why are some countries richer or have a better standard of living than others? O’Rourke, a conservative Republican who is also able to write for more liberal magazines as Rolling Stone and Harper’s deftly examines and compares culture, infant mortality rates, life expectancy, mineral wealth and other factors in a number of countries from Cuba to Sweden.<!-- pagebreak -->

Why are culture-rich countries like Tibet or mineral rich countries like Tanzania so poor?  He takes jabs equally at both the left and right, for example comparing China’s official One Child Policy, to America’s unofficial One Parent Policy.” Readers looking for a bit of good travel writing such as O’Rourke’s Holidays in Hell will not be disappointed either. Here is a zinger from Eat the Rich, "Albania has the distinction of being the only country ever destroyed by a chain letter." A reference to the civil war that broke out in Albania in 1996-1997 when the largest pyramid scheme collapsed. I laughed so hard at “Third World Driving Tips and Hints” in Holidays in Hell, I photocopied the entire chapter. One of the most useful tips in the book may be this, "A fundamental rule of happy living: Never let the people with all the money and the people with all the guns be the same people."