Screwed: The Undeclared War Against the Middle Class - And What We Can Do about It

Thom Hartmann examines why life in America has become increasingly difficult for all but the wealthiest citizens. He argues this decline is not accidental but the result of deliberate political choices that can be reversed. Hartmann traces how America's founding fathers and later leaders like Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin Roosevelt, Harry Truman, and Dwight Eisenhower worked to build and protect a thriving middle class through antitrust regulations, fair labor laws, the minimum wage, Social Security, and Medicare. Over the last twenty-five years, however, he contends that systematic policies have dismantled these protections in favor of the wealthy few. Hartmann argues that a strong middle class is essential to American democracy and prosperity. He references Thomas Jefferson's belief that government must control concentrated wealth to prevent it from becoming dangerous to the state. The book presents proposals for rebuilding a middle class that ensures access to education, health care, and living wages while protecting public institutions from becoming private interests.