The American Zone by L. Neil Smith

Slaughterbush shook his head sadly. "Have you no feeling at all for the suffering millions of innocents who, through no fault of their own, find themselves hopelessly locked into a vile, life-destroying dependency forced on them by profiteers interested only in their money?"

"Sounds like," Lucy muttered, "we've changed the subject t'welfare." - L. Neil Smith, The American Zone

I'm a third into the book and it's as good as any I've read by Smith. Bits like that are found on about every other page. I'm just sorry it took me this long to get around to reading it.