Are you one of those people who have to hold more than one job just to make ends meet? Do you find yourself always on the hunt for the next thing should your current job flop? Welcome to Corporate America, where the much-touted American Dream of the old days is now but a distant memory to the middle class, where the top-tier of the economic pyramid talk about unlimited opportunities while the passengers in coach desperately wait for the trickledown that never comes.
If you’ve always suspected that there might be something deeper behind this seemingly never-ending cycle of hardship and insecurity, then this new book by Dan McCrory will show you that you might be onto something after all. Capitalism Killed the Middle Class: 25 Ways the System is Rigged against You is a comprehensive analysis of how the lamentable plight of America’s workers started to unfold and continues to do so right beneath our noses, told from the lens of someone who had spent 37 years working for a telecommunications giant and exerting efforts to revive union work within the industry.
This book gives an exhaustive breakdown of the 25 ways that the system is forcing the so-called middle class to the less desirable end of the poverty line. Touching on contemporary and relevant issues like housing, Social Security, healthcare, racial inequality, and more, Dan argues that the notion of a free market hides the fact that the system is rigged to make the rich richer and the powerful even more powerful. He maintains that in this system, upward mobility in the economic slide is more of an isolated occurrence rather than an outcome that ordinary citizens can expect for themselves.
Dan laments the fact that while the United States lays claim to being one of the wealthiest countries, it also sports some of the world’s worst inequality ratios. This widening of the wealth gap has resulted in the bifurcation of America into two economic classes – the rich and the poor, with no “middle class” to speak of in between. On the flip side of all of this, Dan believes that the unprecedented growth of the poor class can also be a unifying factor for them to work together in finding a path towards a more prosperous and secure future for their children – that is if they can dodge the distractions and focus on what’s important at this moment.
Overall, the book is an engaging take on the harsh economic realities that America’s workers are facing today. There is no better time than the present to confront these issues now that we are at the verge of another impending economic upheaval. On the other hand, these principles also reflect a larger historical movement that will continue to have repercussions for generations to come for as long as the current system persists. All these make this piece of work all the more relevant not only for today but for many years to come.