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Screwed: The Undeclared War Against the Middle Class -- And What We Can Do about It by Thom Hartmann
anarcho_zymurgist's review
informative
reflective
slow-paced
3.75
Overall, a solid read advocating ideas of social democracy and condemning neoconservatism. It is marred slightly by its uncharacteristically moronic, anti-immigration afterword.
jdintr's review
When did it become wrong for factory workers to earn enough money to send their kids to college? When did America turn its future, its voting, its national security, and its prisons over to corporations? And when did corporations earn the same rights (or better) than American citizens deserve?
Thom Hartmann tries to answer these questions by focusing squarely on the fortunes of America's middle class, which he sees in decline everywhere. Written at the nadir of the George W. Bush administration, it traces American history for the past 100 years through middle-class-colored glasses.
I really appreciated Hartmann's perspective, but there were a few things that seemed anachronistic, reading his book five years after the writing. For one, I had to chuckle at the way he exhorted the Boston Tea Party and Tom Paine's "Common Sense" three years before the Right would find itself in opposition and appropriate these symbols for themselves.
This is a good read, whether you are a Liberal or you're looking for a good liberal perspective to argue against.
Thom Hartmann tries to answer these questions by focusing squarely on the fortunes of America's middle class, which he sees in decline everywhere. Written at the nadir of the George W. Bush administration, it traces American history for the past 100 years through middle-class-colored glasses.
I really appreciated Hartmann's perspective, but there were a few things that seemed anachronistic, reading his book five years after the writing. For one, I had to chuckle at the way he exhorted the Boston Tea Party and Tom Paine's "Common Sense" three years before the Right would find itself in opposition and appropriate these symbols for themselves.
This is a good read, whether you are a Liberal or you're looking for a good liberal perspective to argue against.
wmhenrymorris's review
Not a whole lot new here if one is already familiar with the progressive agenda -- lots of talk about healthcare, the military industrial complex, the prison industrial complex, the evils of corporations. The remedies are all unions, singlepayer healthcare, etc.
However, this book is useful for three reasons:
1. The basic point that democracy is only sustainable where there is a middle class and that the middle class is under attack from a variety of forces.
2. As a reminder of how screwed up healthcare is in this country.
3. As a reminder that how conservatives frame the founding and history of this country isn't the only way to frame it.
I would imagine that most conservatives would dismiss this book as liberal drivel (and indeed it lacks the thoughtfulness and solid philosophical base of, to cite a recent author I've been interested in, Richard Sennett) even if there are some decent gotcha facts and stats. And there isn't enough discussion here to really analyze if the remedies would really work.
But as a polemic it isn't all that bad, and one does wonder why the middle class isn't a bit more angry about how it's been treated by the right and by moderate Democrats. Of course, there was this recent election...
However, this book is useful for three reasons:
1. The basic point that democracy is only sustainable where there is a middle class and that the middle class is under attack from a variety of forces.
2. As a reminder of how screwed up healthcare is in this country.
3. As a reminder that how conservatives frame the founding and history of this country isn't the only way to frame it.
I would imagine that most conservatives would dismiss this book as liberal drivel (and indeed it lacks the thoughtfulness and solid philosophical base of, to cite a recent author I've been interested in, Richard Sennett) even if there are some decent gotcha facts and stats. And there isn't enough discussion here to really analyze if the remedies would really work.
But as a polemic it isn't all that bad, and one does wonder why the middle class isn't a bit more angry about how it's been treated by the right and by moderate Democrats. Of course, there was this recent election...
amolso2's review against another edition
5.0
Great book. I don't think that I really need to explain much much because the title says it all.
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