Award-winning author and Air America radio host Thom Hartmann delivers a call to action for every working-class person in America who is tired of suffocating under the weight of an uncaring, greedy government coupled with corporations that wage war against the American Dream itself.
This motivating and energetic examination of the war against the middle class covers the last 25 years of government and corporate policymaking that has virtually decimated the middle class and made it harder each year for working people to survive, let alone thrive. From skyrocketing profits to corporations and bloated pay scales for CEOs, to government abuses and misuses of the economy, to expensive wars and the ongoing assault of fair labor laws to the slow dismantling of Social Security and Medicare, Hartmann documents the various ways the middle class has been crippled. So much for equal opportunity and the pursuit of life, liberty and happiness. (Forget justice!)
Hartmann, who also wrote one of my all-time favorite calls to action, The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight: The Fate of the World and What We Can Do Before It’s Too Late, doesn’t mince words when showing who’s to blame, both Republicans and Democrats, for the attacks against working people. He does know exactly whom the fate of the middle class falls on, though, and that would be the middle class itself. He urges people to use the resources and ideas he provides to fight back and take a stand.
There will always be the rich, and there will always be the poor. But there won’t always be a middle class for the poor to aspire to, which means a huge gap between the haves and have-nots. If we don’t take back our power, we will, most of us, be have-nots. Whether you are Republican or Democrat, this is a book that speaks of real, tangible threats to the American Dream, which, by the way, doesn’t choose sides. Social and economic justice is critical to a strong democracy.
As Hartmann suggests, the rich are getting richer, the poor are getting poorer, and the middle class are getting screwed.Vincent Serventy, born in Perth in 1925, tells a rich and attentive tale of his childhood devotion to the teachings of his father and his love of the land and all the philosophies it has to offer. Essy Ross, born into the Jewish area of London in 1926, brings alive the difficulty in making ends meet, fighting life threatening illnesses, celebrating traditions, and the life of the market.