"Do people or profits come first
in our society?"
In the last twenty-five
years, we've witnessed an undeclared war against the middle class.
The so-called conservatives waging this war are only interested in
conserving
-- and steadily increasing-- their own wealth and power. Thom Hartmann shows
how,
under the guise of "freeing" the market, the neocons have systematically dismantled
the programs
set up by Republicans and Democrats to protect the middle class
and have installed policies that favor the superrich and corporations.
From BuzzFlash
Thom
Hartmann is probably the most productive person we know.
He's an accomplished author, Air America syndicated radio host, journalist,
specialist in childhood psychological disorders, voracious reader, and just
about the most knowledgeable person we have come across while publishing
BuzzFlash.
Somehow, he even manages to squeeze in a monthly book review for the Buzz, Thom
Hartmann's "Independent Thinker Book of
the Month."
And he has three children and a wife, who
works with him.
So, how does he keep finding the time to author terrific books, with fascinating
insights?
We don't know, but we're sure thankful that Thom is drinking his V-8 Juice,
because "Screwed: The Undeclared War
Against the Middle Class" is another
impassioned, enlightened look at American society, this time focusing on the
shrinking middle class.
While the radical GOP extremists have been diverting the attention of America's
middle class with demagogic, divisive emotional "values" issues, the Republican
Party has been picking their pockets, reducing their opportunities, and
dismantling their support systems.
As the book illustrates, the rich are getting richer, the poor are getting
poorer, and the middle class is getting screwed.
Hartmann always grounds his contemporary analysis in the context of the origins
of our nation, our Constitution, and revolutionary history.
Do people or profits come first in
our society?
Are we a
nation that is interested in advancing the public good and interest of the many?
Or are we an oligarchy, in which the many must sacrifice their futures for the
benefit of a privileged few?
The latter sounds a lot like a monarchy, doesn't it?
And wasn't the American Revolution a result of the rule of an unjust, tyrannical
monarchy?
From the Publisher:
- "The American middle class is on its deathbed.
Ordinary folks 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.
- America wasn't meant to be like this. Air America
Radio host Thom Hartmann shows that our Founding Fathers worked hard to
ensure that a small group of wealthy people would never dominate this
country-- they'd had enough of aristocracy. They put policies in place to
ensure a thriving middle class. When the middle class took a hit, beginning
in the post-Civil War Gilded Age and culminating in the Great Depression,
democracy-loving leaders like Theodore and Franklin Roosevelt, Harry Truman,
and Dwight Eisenhower revitalized it through initiatives like antitrust
regulations, fair labor laws, the minimum wage, Social Security, and
Medicare.
- So what happened? In the last twenty-five years,
we've witnessed an undeclared war against the middle class. The so-called
conservatives waging this war are only interested in conserving--and
steadily increasing--their own wealth and power. Hartmann shows how, under
the guise of "freeing" the market, they've systematically dismantled the
programs set up by Republicans and Democrats to protect the middle class and
have installed policies that favor the superrich and corporations.
- But it's not too late to return to the America our
Founders envisioned. Hartmann outlines a series of commonsense proposals
that will ensure that our public institutions are not turned into private
fiefdoms and that people's basic needs--education, health care, a living
wage--are met in a way that allows the middle class to expand, not shrink.
- America will be stronger with a growing, prospering
middle class-- rule by the rich will only make it weaker. Democracy requires
a fair playing field, and it will survive only if We the People stand up,
speak out, and reclaim our democratic birthright."
###
"When a long train of abuses
and usurpations [...] evinces a design
to reduce them [the people] under absolute despotism,
it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government."
- Thomas
Jefferson, US Declaration of Independence