What exactly does James do? What is his "Game," and how does he siphon off so much wealth for himself and the other Jameses in his network, while hardly even being noticed, much less restrained, by regulators, watchdogs and us ordinary Sams, whom he is robbing in broad daylight?
Rather, James, in his various positions within politics, regulatory agencies, corporations, law firms, consultancies, trade associations, and so on, takes advantage of his power to grant discretionary favours to his mates who in turn, over time, return those favours to James, not in cash but in kind.
In the mining industry, corporate Jameses conspire with Jameses in government to get Sam the taxpayer to cough up the money for a railway to his mine, or for an airstrip or harbour to handle the comings and goings of James' products and personnel, all under the pretext that these installations are for the public benefit and that James is only an incidental beneficiary.
Occasionally, the authors provide examples of how James rips off Sam that maybe Sam brings on himself.
Despite the fact that James is the out-and-out villain of the story, there are moments when reading Rigged that one can't help but have a grudging admiration for James' skill at manipulating the system and keeping his activities under Sam's radar.
"Who benefits the most from additional skilled workers? Other workers who would have to compete for jobs and already live here? Or James and his Mates, the bosses and owners in monopolised sectors of the economy, who benefit from selling new apartments, pharmaceuticals, superannuation funds and new mortgages? Of course, it is James simply come to swell the numbers of those James can rob."
The last thing I want to see is another update to this book five years from now, documenting even more shocking examples of James' ill-gotten gains.
https://brownstone.org/articles/ill-gotten-gains-is-what-politics-is-all-about/
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