Screwed: The Undeclared War Against the Middle Class -- And What We Can Do About It (BK Currents) 
asked by nutshell on November 14, 2006 9:39 AM
The American middle class is on its deathbed. People who put in a solid day's work can no longer afford to buy a house, send their kids to college, or even get sick. If you’re not a CEO, you’re probably screwed.
As Air America Radio Host Thom Hartmann shows, this death is no accident. Like the Founding Fathers, patriots such as Roosevelt, Truman, and Eisenhower knew that economic opportunity and democracy go hand-in-hand. They believed in maximizing the public good and they worked tirelessly to build the strongest middle class the world has ever seen. But now, under the guise of “freeing the market,” conservative and corporate forces are waging a covert war against the middle class, dismantling policies like Social Security, Medicare, the minimum wage, and fair labor laws — the very safeguards that foster economic opportunity and citizen engagement. The result is an economic system designed to line the pockets of the super-rich, the impending extinction of the middle class, and a very real, very dangerous threat to democracy itself.
By exposing the systematic efforts to destroy the middle class, Screwed empowers readers to stand up, speak out, and reclaim their democratic birthrights.
As Air America Radio Host Thom Hartmann shows, this death is no accident. Like the Founding Fathers, patriots such as Roosevelt, Truman, and Eisenhower knew that economic opportunity and democracy go hand-in-hand. They believed in maximizing the public good and they worked tirelessly to build the strongest middle class the world has ever seen. But now, under the guise of “freeing the market,” conservative and corporate forces are waging a covert war against the middle class, dismantling policies like Social Security, Medicare, the minimum wage, and fair labor laws — the very safeguards that foster economic opportunity and citizen engagement. The result is an economic system designed to line the pockets of the super-rich, the impending extinction of the middle class, and a very real, very dangerous threat to democracy itself.
By exposing the systematic efforts to destroy the middle class, Screwed empowers readers to stand up, speak out, and reclaim their democratic birthrights.
Reviews
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This book is a perfect complement to Lou Dobbs' own book on "War on the Middle Class," and is also better in the single specific area where this author chooses to focus: on the middle class. The book by Lou Dobbs is the best book over-all, covering a number of topics related to the health of U.S. society and the economy, while this author focuses exclusively on the middle class.
If I were to recommend one other book, it would be Naomi Klein's "NO LOGO" which discusses how individual citizens can track the abusive practices and behavior of corporations, and the multitude of individuals can punish them through simple boycotts of their products.
There is no question in my mind but that We the People will take back the power, this book, and Lou Dobbs' book, represent the end of an era of unquestioned repression and abuse of America's middle class and blue-collar labor force, and the beginning of a revolution that the banks and corporations will NOT be able to squelch.
reviewed by fusionz on November 22, 2006 3:25 AM
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Congratulations to Thom Hartmann on his new book Screwed; The Undeclared War Against the Middle Class. I saw him on Book TV several days ago and purchased the book. This book connects the dots between political, social and economic events in the United States from 1750 through 2006. Most Americans realize that there are grave injustices in our society and much of those injustices are caused by big government, big corporations, and a small group of high ranking politicians.
The book carefully describes several fundamentals of good government fought for by our early patriots--especially from 1770 to 1800. The new government born in 1775 and 1776 was a government of "We the People of the United States . . . [to] establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty . . ." [The Constitution of the United States of America, from the preamble.]
Without a large, prosperous middle class a democracy will decline and end in tyranny, as it did in the Roman Republic when the Republic became the Roman Empire during the reign of the first Caesar. As he pointed out, the current middle class in the United States: had its roots in the Depression and WWI; was established during 1946 through the 1950s; and started a steady decline around 1981 during the presidency of Ronald Reagan (President, 1981-89.)
The US trade deficit hit a high in 2005 of over $700 billion and will probably be at least $700 billion in 2006. To get a street-level idea of those trade deficits consider the allocation of these amounts to 100 million US citizen workers. Multiply $10 by 100 million and the sum is $1,000M or $1 billion. So, a debt of $1B would be equal to 100 million people owing $10 each. Therefore a debt of $700 billion is equal to $10 x $700 for 100 million people, or $7,000 each! In two years that would be $14,000 per person owed to foreigners.
Reagan and Reaganomics almost tripled the national debt (already high from the Vietnam War and other deficit years) in only 8 years. It is important to debunk, set straight the Reagan Legacy and expose it as an economic failure.
The Privatizing Iraq section on pages 130-35 gives a few reasons why the war in Iraq is almost lost. President Bush gave US tax dollars (through direct taxes and borrowed money) to companies like Bechtel and Halliburton--insuring billions of dollars in profits and denying the Iraqi people control over rebuilding their own country.
You may be surprised to learn that while I like the book and voted against Bush in 2004 and against most Republicans in 2006, I am a Republican, conservative Christian, white, middle-class, small business owner. This election in 2006 showed that some of us "right-wing" conservative Christians have caught on about the true nature of the neo-cons. -- Kenneth S. from Texas
The book carefully describes several fundamentals of good government fought for by our early patriots--especially from 1770 to 1800. The new government born in 1775 and 1776 was a government of "We the People of the United States . . . [to] establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty . . ." [The Constitution of the United States of America, from the preamble.]
Without a large, prosperous middle class a democracy will decline and end in tyranny, as it did in the Roman Republic when the Republic became the Roman Empire during the reign of the first Caesar. As he pointed out, the current middle class in the United States: had its roots in the Depression and WWI; was established during 1946 through the 1950s; and started a steady decline around 1981 during the presidency of Ronald Reagan (President, 1981-89.)
The US trade deficit hit a high in 2005 of over $700 billion and will probably be at least $700 billion in 2006. To get a street-level idea of those trade deficits consider the allocation of these amounts to 100 million US citizen workers. Multiply $10 by 100 million and the sum is $1,000M or $1 billion. So, a debt of $1B would be equal to 100 million people owing $10 each. Therefore a debt of $700 billion is equal to $10 x $700 for 100 million people, or $7,000 each! In two years that would be $14,000 per person owed to foreigners.
Reagan and Reaganomics almost tripled the national debt (already high from the Vietnam War and other deficit years) in only 8 years. It is important to debunk, set straight the Reagan Legacy and expose it as an economic failure.
The Privatizing Iraq section on pages 130-35 gives a few reasons why the war in Iraq is almost lost. President Bush gave US tax dollars (through direct taxes and borrowed money) to companies like Bechtel and Halliburton--insuring billions of dollars in profits and denying the Iraqi people control over rebuilding their own country.
You may be surprised to learn that while I like the book and voted against Bush in 2004 and against most Republicans in 2006, I am a Republican, conservative Christian, white, middle-class, small business owner. This election in 2006 showed that some of us "right-wing" conservative Christians have caught on about the true nature of the neo-cons. -- Kenneth S. from Texas
reviewed by lauren on November 28, 2006 7:22 AM
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I think Thom Hartmann has written a book which is a quick read and very important in these days of one party rule in this country. He has a knack of educating you with interesting stories. Everybody needs to read this book.
reviewed by shakeonit on November 29, 2006 3:47 PM