New Thom Hartmann Book! Screwed:The Undeclared War against Middle Class

[Gold Metal Flake]

You KNOW this is gonna be good!
With a forward by Mark Crispin Miller

Preorder a copy today,lets get this to #1!


Screwed: The Undeclared War against the Middle Class ... and What We Can Do about It

Thom Hartmann, Foreword by Mark Crispin Miller

Pub. Date: August 2006



FROM THE PUBLISHER
In Screwed,Thom Hartmann argues that the middle class is not the natural consequence of a free market based economy, but rather, the intended result of policies put into place to maximize the public good. Unfortunately, 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. This is because a covert war, waged by conservative and corporate forces, is dismantling policies like Social Security, Medicare, the minimum wage, and fair labor laws. The result is the unnatural extinction of the middle class and the economy that Roosevelt, Truman, and Eisenhower envisioned. Under the guise of "freeing" the market, conservatives have enriched themselves and their fat-cat cronies and screwed everyone else. By exposing the machinations of those whose greed and irresponsibility is destroying the middle class, Screwed empowers readers to stand up, speak out, and return America to the principles envisioned by its founders.

[IndyOp]

1. K&R - This is a *must* read !! (n/t)

[Debi]

2. Maybe this is just me, but I hate the title 'middle class'

because it implies the quality of the individual (at least to me). I'd rather see the term 'middle income'

There are many, many people who are 'upper or higher income' who have NO CLASS :grr:

Just MHO.

[Gold Metal Flake]

3. Uh, thanks.

:eyes:

[Debi]

4. Yeah, I know

It really had nothing to do with the book or the author or anything other than the term.

This is what happens when I think out loud :crazy:

[Tactical Progressive]

7. Never really thought of it that way

but I think you may have a point.

On the other hand middle class is probably technically more accurate than middle income. You could live in a two million dollar home and have three million dollars in other assets, yet only have seventy or eighty thousand dollars in actual after-tax income, making you technically in the middle income bracket. But you'd be upper class in wealth and economic security.

[Debi]

9. It's just a double definition of the word class (which actually has 7 or 8

economic worth of the individual vs. quality (community mindedness)of the individual.

Like I stated up-thread, just my thinking out loud. :7

[MountainLaurel]

5. Sounds like a good one

Will definitely check it out.

[New Government]

6. I've read it! I bought an A.R.C. and it's an excellent book

Ipurchased an advanced reading copy online and read Hartmnann's latest. The book is a must-read as he tries to bring the focus back to bread and butter issues.

Thanks for posting this! Pre-order this book!

[earth mom]

8. Thanks for the info-looks like a must read! eom

[iconoclastNYC]

10. The entire LEFT should push this book and the meme.

It's a winner. It will give the DLC the vapors of course and that is in effect a ringing endorsement.

That war on terror is an expensive Oreweillian right-wing government mind control game/bondoggle.

The war on the middle class is what will really destroy us all. And I mean our families.

[tomreedtoon]

11. Another great platform the Democratic Party will NOT use.

And this time it angers me because I am the "middle class" of which the title speaks.

My father lived a middle-class lifestyle in the early 1960's. He could support my non-working mother, myself and my three siblings. He could afford good used cars for himself and the others who could drive, and put three of us through college. He even owned his own house.

I'm working essentially at the same level, but I can't afford any of that.

And while the Republican party has instigated most of the policies that have destroyed my present, and possibly my future, the Democratic party has never been outraged by it. Especially for the Congressional critters, those Republican economic policies have enriched them as well, so why should they care about us?



"Our economics are fine, thanks to our President Dubya!"

[ariellyn]

12. I heard Hartman explain WHY the war exists in understandable terms

on AAR earlier this week.

Hartman says that during the 60's/70's American's enjoyed some the promises of the Constitution, freedom of speech, high incomes, union protections and job opportunities galore. He said that because people were comfortable, able to support themselves without fear of losing their jobs they were able to express themselves freely during protests and other forms of activism. They were also less loyal to their employers. This angered the Reich and they have been on a mission ever since to ensure that Americans never again enjoy such freedom and instead live in fear not just of terrorism but of losing their personal livelihoods and way of life. They are striking at the heel of Maslow's Hierarchy to control Americans and most don't even know it.