Government: The Original Crime Family

How the State Took the Mob’s Best Ideas and Made Them Legal

Ever get the feeling that your government is just one step away from running a protection racket?

Good news: it already is.

Even better news: this book explains exactly how.

In Government: The Original Crime Family, Joseph Sapp takes readers on a blistering, hilarious, and disturbingly accurate tour through the machinery of modern governance—and shows how it mirrors organized crime in structure, strategy, and spirit.

Inside, you’ll discover:

• Why taxes are just protection money with better branding
• How bureaucracy outshines the mob in inefficiency and menace
• The terrifying magic trick known as civil asset forfeiture
• How elections offer the illusion of choice while the house always wins
• The real reason war is always on the menu—and who’s getting paid

Delivered in Sapp’s signature voice—equal parts streetwise, scholarly, and savage—this book is your decoder ring for the great civic con. If George Carlin rewrote The Godfather with footnotes, it might sound like this.

Perfect for readers who enjoy:

• Political satire that hits uncomfortably close to home
• Anti-authoritarian truth-telling with teeth
• A laugh, a gut punch, and a plan of survival in one sitting

Buy it. Read it. Dog-ear it for the revolution.

What do taxes, permits, surveillance, and war have in common?

They're all part of the same hustle.

In this sharp, hilarious, and dangerously truthful book, veteran trial lawyer, hypnotist, and social engineer Joseph Sapp pulls the mask off modern government—and reveals what’s been hiding underneath: the original organized crime syndicate.

With chapters like “Taxes: The Government’s Protection Racket”, “Civil Asset Forfeiture: Robbery with Paperwork”, and “The Don and the Executive Branch”, Sapp walks you through a side-by-side breakdown of mob rule and state power—with wit, wisdom, and just enough satire to make you laugh through the outrage.

Whether it’s bureaucracy as a racket, elections as illusion, or surveillance sold as safety, Government: The Original Crime Family shows how the state has refined, legalized, and industrialized the exact tactics that once made mob bosses infamous.

And the best part?

They convinced you it was for your own good.

• Why taxes aren’t civic duty—they’re extortion with a seal
• How the media launders propaganda better than any back-alley consigliere
• The hidden structure of modern empire-building (and why it looks a lot like a turf war)
• How to recognize the grift in your everyday life—and what to do about it

• Political satire that hits a little too close to home
• Dark truths delivered with a side of whiskey and a smirk
• George Carlin, Hunter S. Thompson, or that one uncle who "knows too much"

Read this book if you're ready to laugh, ready to rage, and ready to finally see the con for what it is.

Because once you see the system clearly … you'll never salute the same way again.

Read it. Laugh hard. Think twice.