Most of the countries of Europe & Asia (Australia, South Korea, Japan, Taiwan) have laws in place that guarantee a healthy middle class: poverty, like in America, doesn't haunt their dreams.

The Washington Post just published a heartbreaking story about Dave Ramsey Jr., a working class American who fell out of the middle class and couldn't afford an urn for his father's ashes, much less a memorial ceremony.

To save money, the funeral home gave him his dad's ashes wrapped in a cloth bag:

"Like a record 23 percent of Americans who've died in the past five years," Eli Saslow writes for the Post, "the ultimate financial worth of his father's life was nothing — a number somewhere below zero."

In fact, it's worse than that, as Saslow points out, noting that Dave Jr's family is:

"[A] case study in what economists called 'backwards mobility' into the bottom 50 percent of Americans who now collectively have a negative net worth."

A "negative net worth" takes you beyond mere poverty: it means you have virtually no way to ever economically catch your breath or sleep at night without worry.

Read more at HartmannReport.com.

-Thom

Tuesday's Daily Stack

Article: "A Middle Class Should Be a Dream and Not a Nightmare" by Thom Hartmann.

Article: "Will Trump End Up In Prison?" by Thom Hartmann.

Article: "10 Major Accomplishments of Gerald Ford" by Anirudh.

Article: "PPP loans show that the only thing public about charter schools is the money they take" by Laura Clawson.

Article: "The real Little Dorrit: Charles Dickens and the debtors' prison" by David Thomas.

Article: "Jimmy Carter: Domestic Affairs" by Robert A. Strong.

Book: "The Hidden History of Neoliberalism: How Reaganism Gutted America and How to Restore Its Greatness" by Thom Hartmann.

Book: "The Hidden History of Guns and the Second Amendment" by Thom Hartmann.

Book: "Screwed: The Undeclared War Against The Middle Class" by Thom Hartmann.

Article: "G.I. Bill" by History.com.

Article: "The Reagan administration's budget cuts: Their impact on the poor" by Sheldon Danziger and Robert Haveman.

Article: "Richard Nixon's Top Domestic and Foreign Policy Achievements" by Richard Nixon Foundation.

Article: "The Tipping Point: Most Americans No Longer Are Middle Class" by Marilyn Geewax.

Article: "Cuts In U.S. Aid To Education To Have Wide Impact; The Budget Targets First of a series on key programs; that President Reagan wants to cut." by Marjorie Hunter.

Article: "U.S. is the least socially and economically mobile in developed world, says Jeb Bush" by Joshua Gillin.

Article: "The GOP Is Reviving One of Its Favorite Scams" by Thom Hartmann.

Article: "The death spiral of an American family" by Eli Saslow.

Law: "Civil Rights Act of 1964".

Law: "Voting Rights Act of 1965".

Speech: "Great Society" by Wikipedia.

Article: "United States Federal Corporate Tax Rate 1909-2020 Data" by Trading Economics.

Article: "New Deal" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Horses and Sparrows: The myth of 'trickle down' economics" by Gina Hamilton.

Article: "Richest 25 Americans reportedly paid 'true tax rate' of 3.4% as wealth rocketed" by Adam Gabbatt.

Article: "Land-grant university" by Wikipedia.

Bill: "S.2747 - Freedom to Vote Act" by Sen. Klobuchar, Amy [D-MN].

Article: "Ku Klux Klan Act" by Wikipedia.

Tweet: "The People's Convoy has a new problem: their own leader Brian Brase left them for the weekend to take some time off, causing concern among truckers in Hagerstown." by Zachary Petrizzo.

Article: "Few public defenders become federal judges. Ketanji Brown Jackson would be the Supreme Court's first" by Kenichi Serino.

Article: "Thurgood Marshall" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Ted Cruz Accuses Biden of 'Racial Discrimination' Over Supreme Court, Says Pledge for Black Woman Should Be 'Illegal'" by Ken Meyer.

Article: "Sen. Lindsey Graham storms off during questioning of SCOTUS nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson" by Devyani Chhetri.

Article: "Kauffman study: Only startups bring real job growth" by Aly Van Dyke.

Article: "Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas to Be Discharged from Hospital After Developing Infection" by Natasha Dado.

Article: "Chicago gas: Businessman Willie Wilson expanding free fill-ups to Cook County, donating $1M Thursday" by ABC7 Chicago.

Article: "Smithfield Foods" by Wikipedia.

Article: "How foreign investors in farmland are changing life in the West" by Heather Hansman.

Audio: "Background Briefing with Ian Masters: March 21, 2022 - Natalie Jaresko | John Burgess | Matthew Klein".

Article: "Owners reportedly dump dog at animal shelter because they thought he was 'gay'" by Sky Palma.

Article: "Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization (PATCO) - August 1981 strike" by Wikipedia.

Hour Two: Wealthy Countries Have 12 Years To End Oil & Gas Production - Yet None Have Plans To
- Collin Rees, Senior Campaigner - Oil Change International & Oil Change U.S.

Article: "Rich Nations Must Cut Off Oil and Gas by 2034 to Keep Climate Hopes Alive: Report" by Jake Johnson.

Article: "How Much Does Oil and Gas Drive U.S. GDP?" by Bob Iaccino.

Article: "Economy of Angola" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Manchin says Build Back Better is 'dead.' Here's what he might resurrect." by Sahil Kapur and Benjy Sarlin.

Documentary: Ice on Fire.

Article: "The Hidden Subsidy of Fossil Fuels" by Robinson Meyer.

Article: "1935 passage of the Wagner Act" by NLRB.

Law: "Taft-Hartley Labor Act", 1947.

Article: "Bonus chapter to 'The Hidden History of the Supreme Court and the Betrayal of America'" by Thom Hartmann.

Article: "Heatwaves at both of Earth's poles alarm climate scientists" by Fiona Harvey.

Article: "Clathrate gun hypothesis" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Holes the size of city blocks are forming in the Arctic seafloor" by Katie Hunt.

Article: "Ukrainian forces say they regained control of Makariv, west of Kyiv" by Irene Nasser.

Article: "'Nazi' Putin accused of rounding up Ukrainians into sinister Russian work camps" by Michael Moran.

Article: "First Ukraine City Falls as Russia Strikes More Civilian Targets" (Kherson) by Michael Schwirtz and Richard Pérez-Peña.

Article: "Pro-Trump group sent armed members door-to-door in Colorado to 'intimidate' voters: lawsuit " by Igor Derysh.

Article: "The Hayes-Tilden Electoral Commission" by James Monroe.

Article: "Operation Eagle Eye (United States)" by Wikipedia.

Article: "3 men plead guilty in white supremacist terror plot to disrupt power grid, trigger race war " by Dennis Romero.

Article: "Sandy Hook families settle for $73M with gun maker Remington" by Dave Collins.

Article: "Toxic masculinity" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Lyndsey Graham" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Durbin slaps down Cornyn for claiming Ketanji Brown Jackson called Bush a war criminal" by Kaelan Deese.

Article: "China's COVID Surge Could Cause Shortages and Increase International Inflation Numbers" by Vance Cariaga.

Article: "Carbon capture and storage plant becomes operational in Iceland" by UNESCO.

Article: "Ford F-150 Lightning wait list is over 3 years long" by Ben Hsu.

Hour Three: Does Putin Have a Victimhood Narrative & If So, What Does That Mean?
- Psychoanalyst Dr. Justin Frank MD, Psychoanalyst & Clinical Professor, Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Science - George Washington University / Author - Trump on the Couch (Previous books include Bush on the Couch & Obama on the Couch) @JustinFrankMD

Article: "AP fact check: Trump plays on immigration myths" by AP.

Article: "Ex-Trump advisor Bannon says he is 'political hit job' victim" by Stephanie Keith.

Article: "U.S. Engaged in Torture After 9/11, Review Concludes" by Scott Shane.

Article: "Abraham Maslow" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs" by Saul McLeod.

Article: "DeSantis eyes special session to target Florida's Black-held congressional seats: report " by Timothy Evans.

Article: "Rolling coal" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Val Demings to run for Senate against Rubio " by Marc Caputo.

Article: "Can the World Learn from the Failure of the Budapest Accords?" by Thom Hartmann.

Article: "America's Hesitation Is Heartbreaking" by Eliot A. Cohen.

Article: "Russia Uses Lara Logan's Rant About Ukraine, Zelenskyy As Propaganda On Twitter" by Lee Moran.

Article: "1939 Nazi rally at Madison Square Garden" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Azov Battalion" by Wikipedia.

Documentary: Who Killed the Electric Car?.

Article: "Respiratory Syncytial Virus Infection (RSV)" by CDC.

Wednesday on The Thom Hartmann Program, 12-3pm ET

I'll be talking with Economist Dr. Richard Wolff, Co-founder, Democracy At Work / Author of numerous books - his latest is The Sickness is the System (now also available as an eBook)

And, the best of the rest of the news along with your calls right here on...

The Thom Hartmann Program, Occupying The Media 3 hours a day 5 days a week for "we the people"

And don't forget...Democracy is NOT a spectator sport...it begins with you...

Why GOPers Are Concerned Judge Jackson Was Public Defender

Is Putin the Victim? (w/ Dr. Justin A. Frank)

Is a Nuremberg-Style Trial for Putin in the Works?