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Screwed

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Screwed

The Undeclared War Against the Middle Class - and What We Can Do About It

Berrett-Koehler,

15 min read
10 take-aways
Audio & text

What's inside?

The American Dream once meant financial security, but those days are over. How did this happen?

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Editorial Rating

7

Qualities

  • Innovative

Recommendation

Since the early 1980s, American politics have been meshed with the interests of large corporations. The result is a new form of "corporatocracy," which Thom Hartmann links to the woes of the middle class. He believes that the political Conservatives who pushed for privatization and special corporate tax breaks intentionally harmed the American middle class, which he calls the bedrock of democracy. While the U.S. government has helped corporations and wealthy citizens, it has increasingly taxed the public and killed social programs that fostered the middle class. Hartmann focuses on the U.S.' future, which, he says, depends on having a healthy middle class. He adds a historical perspective by quoting America's founders, who predicted the dangers of creeping corporatism, economic elitism and an incipient aristocracy. Although he is very assertive in his attacks on Conservatives and corporations, his approach is refreshing. getAbstract found this impassioned analysis interesting, but – fair warning – you won't like it much if you're a corporate lobbyist or a Bush supporter.

Summary

America's war against the middle class began in the early 1980s and continues unabated. Consider this: In the first few years of the 21st century, five million people lost their health insurance. By 2006, more than 45 million Americans could not cover the costs of a major health problem. Some of this shortfall could be attributed to a drop in membership in labor unions, which provided workers with more protection and campaigned to secure health insurance, pensions and fair wages. Many U.S. workers benefited from union negotiations that set higher standards for health and welfare benefits. “It's not true that unions are just for blue-collar workers. Unions are for anyone who wants to be middle class. Teachers are almost all unionized.”

In the 1980s, 70% of U.S. families could get by with one salaried adult, and people who retired or were unable to work could subsist on Social Security. By 2006, the middle class was being squeezed. Today's minimum wage is $5.15 an hour, which puts a family below the poverty line, while the average CEO received a $7.7 million salary in 2002 and $9.6 million in 2006. From 2000 to 2004, the inflation-adjusted median household income in the U.S. ...

About the Author

Air America radio talk show host Thom Hartmann has written 14 books, and speaks frequently on culture and communications. He is the former director of a treatment facility for abused children and has set up hospitals, relief programs, schools and communities for orphaned or blind children in Africa, Australia, Europe, India, Israel, Russia, South America and the U.S.

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