What part of The Jungle can help us today?

[batwoman]

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fanuzzir wrote:

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zman wrote:
I'm definitely in favor of good social programs as long as they're well-regulated and responsibly administered, and it worries me that the middle class in America is slowly shrinking. The poor get poorer and the rich get richer, and that doesn't bode well for a healthy society. But that's a complicated equation, and I'm not an economist.

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One of my favorite books is "America What Went Wrong," and it shows that the individual's share of the federal tax burden has increased exponentially since the 1950s, and that corporations' burden has shrank by just as much. Enough said.

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Yes. . . Haliburton. Our taxes provide their profits which they promptly stash in offshore accounts to avoid paying taxes in turn. I think we're subsidizing corporate welfare.

[fanuzzir]

I'd say we've come full circle: corporate socialism.

[MacNCheese]

This is all so interesting to me. I have been out of college for nearly 4 years. I have a degree in Poli-Sci but find it hard to jump back into the swing of debate. I love the responses, but in a way I feel the Army dummed me down and now being a mother I have to wait to get back into the swing of it all. I actually saw the book from a different point of view. I believe my current filters in life have changed how I percieve alot. So for me, now, being a stay home mom and working to provide a happy, healthy home for my child and husband, reading the Jungle makes me so much more thankful for what I have. Reading it has made me realize how much more I have, then I knew. The fact that I have the ability to stay home and care for my child and protect her makes me that much more rich. I may not be putting my degree to work and doubling our income now, but my child is first right now. She didnt decide to come into this world so my husband and I gave up much to be there for her. To be honest I'm a little more than half thru and what I have read terrifies me. Losing those who you rely on most at young ages. It is more infuriating then anything to see how these people were taken advantage of. For me this book, obviously, touched my life in a different way. But that is why I joined this club to see how it touched others, what they took from it and to see it from their life filters...which is very prevelant. Thank You all for the interesting comments and ideas.

[fanuzzir]

Thanks to the Jungle and the social movements of its time, we have lots more security for the lower and middle classes today. So it's possible to read this and breathe a sigh of relief, there but for the grace of God go I. It's also an intensely familial novel, and many readers felt it was a big loss when Jurgis cut loose from his family ties. But that's what politics of the time were demanding him to do: to realize his higher loyalty to the oppressed class, irrespective of personal relation. I don't think we can think that way anymore. Too many people have fought too hard to get the middle class family life that eluded these poor immigrants.

Thank you so much for your comment and your perspective. I'm glad you found a relevance of the novel to your personal situation.
Bob