{"title":"Devin Fergus","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"land-of-the-fee-book-devin-fergus-9780199970162","title":"Land of the Fee","description":"Politicians, economists, and the media have put forth no shortage of explanations for the mounting problem of wealth inequality - a loss of working class jobs, a rise in finance-driven speculative capitalism, and a surge of tax policy decisions that benefit the ultra-rich, among others. While these arguments focus on the macro problems that contribute to growing inequality, they overlook one innocuous but substantial contributor to the widening divide: the explosion of fees accompanying virtually every transaction that people make.   As Devin Fergus shows in Land of the Fee, these perfectly legal fees are buried deep within the verbose agreements between vendors and consumers - agreements that few people fully read or comprehend. The end effect, Fergus argues, is a massive transfer of wealth from the many to the few: large banking corporations, airlines, corporate hotel chains, and other entities of vast wealth. Fergus traces the fee system from its origins in the deregulatory wave of the late 1970s to the present, placing the development within the larger context of escalating income inequality. He organizes the book around four of the basics of existence: housing, work, transportation, and schooling. In each category, industry lobbyists successfully influenced legislatures into transforming the law until surreptitious fees became the norm.   The average consumer is now subject to a dizzying array of charges in areas like mortgage contracts, banking transactions, auto insurance rates, college payments, and payday loans. The fees that accompany these transactions are not subject to usury laws and have effectively redistributed wealth from the lower and middle classes to ultra-wealthy corporations and the individuals at their pinnacles. By exposing this predatory and nearly invisible system of fees, Land of the Fee will reshape our understanding of wealth inequality in America.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49597050421521,"sku":"GOR009260181","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52629783544081,"sku":"NIN9780199970162","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0199970165.jpg?v=1751290150"},{"product_id":"liberalism-black-power-and-the-making-of-american-politics-1965-1980-book-devin-fergus-9780820333243","title":"Liberalism, Black Power, and the Making of American Politics, 1965-1980","description":"Explores the interplay between liberalism and black nationalism. Focusing on North Carolina, a progressive southern state and a national center of Black Power activism, this book reveals how liberal engagement helped to bring a radical civic ideology back from the brink of political violence and social nihilism.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50371381133585,"sku":"CIN0820333247G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51008383222033,"sku":"NIN9780820333243","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52535481630993,"sku":"NLS9780820333243","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":52706182430993,"sku":"CIN0820333247VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0820333247.jpg?v=1751201948"},{"product_id":"land-of-the-fee-book-devin-fergus-9780197502808","title":"Land of the Fee","description":"The loans ordinary Americans take out to purchase homes and attend college often leave them in a sea of debt. As Devin Fergus explains in Land of the Fee, a not-insignificant portion of that debt comes in the form of predatory hidden fees attached to everyday transactions. Beginning in the 1980s, lobbyists for the financial industry helped dismantle consumer protections, resulting in surreptitious fees-often waived for those who can afford them but not for those who can't. Bluntly put, these hidden fees unfairly keep millions of Americans from their hard-earned money.   Journalists and policymakers have identified the primary causes of increasing wealth inequality-fewer good working class jobs, a rise in finance-driven speculative capitalism, and a surge of tax policy decisions that benefit the ultra-rich, among others. However, they miss one commonplace but substantial contributor to the widening divide between the rich and the rest: the explosion of fees on every transaction people make in their daily lives.    Land of the Fee traces the system of fees from its origins in the deregulatory wave of the late 1970s to the present. The average consumer now pays a dizzying array of charges for mortgage contracts, banking transactions, auto insurance rates, college payments, and payday loans. These fees are buried in the pages of small-print agreements that few consumers read or understand. Because these fees do not fall under usury laws, they have redistributed wealth to large corporations and their largest shareholders. By exposing this predatory and nearly invisible system of fees, Land of the Fee reshapes our understanding of wealth inequality in America.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ -","offer_id":51298535375121,"sku":"","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51298537046289,"sku":"NIN9780197502808","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52493299843345,"sku":"NLS9780197502808","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0197502806.jpg?v=1751323313"},{"product_id":"liberalism-black-power-and-the-making-of-american-politics-1965-1980-book-devin-fergus-9780820333236","title":"Liberalism, Black Power, and the Making of American Politics, 1965-1980","description":"Explores the interplay between liberalism and black nationalism. Focusing on North Carolina, a progressive southern state and a national center of Black Power activism, this book reveals how liberal engagement helped to bring a radical civic ideology back from the brink of political violence and social nihilism.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":52434712920337,"sku":null,"price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52434713575697,"sku":"NLS9780820333236","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9780820333236.jpg?v=1759181402"}],"url":"https:\/\/www.worldofbooks.com\/collections\/author-books-by-devin-fergus.oembed","provider":"World of Books ","version":"1.0","type":"link"}