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Author
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Topic: The Screwing of the Average Man
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DrConway
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 490
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posted 23 August 2001 03:45 AM
It's a book I and rasmus have - I got him his copy, and I've okayed his transferring it to anyone else who wants a crack at it as long as they keep it in good condition  Anyway, I'm sort of wanting to discuss this book and books like it - they're a genre of leftist/populist literature that aren't written esoterically; that is, the books that fall into this category are written by straight-shooters who want to present their points and don't care whose toes they step on. For this reason, the literature so produced tends to be biased against large corporations, the rich, but also against some of the stupider features of government. Walter Stewart's books also fall into this category.  So, I'll open the floor to rasmus when he gets done, and then it's a free-for-all. I'll get my oar in first by giving a quick synopsis of the book: It was written in the 1970s, but a lot of it is still applicable today. It's actually rather fascinating reading how quickly the national mood started changing after 1969. In it, he writes about how "the fat years" (my term, not his) of the 1950s and 1960s were already over by the early 1970s, and how the "system" (his term, not mine) once again tilted against the average guy/girl. He does mention the title and the obviously sexist nature of it, but we viewers of this thread must realize that his rationale for the title made sense - in 1975 the trend for women to take ANY job they wanted and not just the "approved" jobs for unmarried women was still new, and men were still perceived as, and largely were, breadwinners. Some of the information in the book is badly dated, but it provides for some illuminating insights into how society today still operates much as advertised in this book. You could literally lift pages from the book and reprint them in a newspaper today, unchanged, and they would be relevant. The tax system still works to give rich people and big corporations many exemptions from taxation that the average guy can't get, or only gives the average guy back a few bucks. If you want to find the book, it's authored by David Hapgood, and the one I have is a white-covered paperback, with a (presumably middle-class) 1970s couple surrounded by hands eager to strip them of everything they own. 
From: You shall not side with the great against the powerless. | Registered: May 2001
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Email this thread to someone!
Good one skdadl 
... the screwing of the average man in THAT respect. 
