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  In a successful motion picture of a couple of years ago, a TV newscaster looked at the evils in the world around him and loudly announced that he was "mad as hell" and was "not going to take it anymore!"  But outside of making the announcement, he did nothing--nothing to alleviate the ills, or to help the situation.
     When TV humorist, actor, musician, composer and author Steve Allen views the extent to which corruption has penetrated all levels of American society, he too is "mad as hell."  But in Ripoff he sets out to do something about it.  In a scathing denunciation of our greed-gripped society, Allen catalogs its illnesses and offers helpful suggestions for remedial action.
    Steve Allen perceives almost no present limits to the tide of crime and corruption that has affected all walks of life in modern-day America.  Congressmen, senators, governors, bank presidents, industry leaders--even a Vice President of the United States--have been caught with their hands in the till.  The youngster who accepts cheating on a grade-school test as merely part of his education...the politician whose hand is open for a bribe...the government investigator into fraud who juggles his own expense account...the physician who "adjusts" his bill to cheat the Medicaid system...the showbusiness agents and performers who work tax swindles as casually as they ply their  trades...the businessmen who "buy" their way into successful careers...they are all here in Ripoff, and they do not make a pretty picture.
     In a breezy, informal style, Allen lays out the facts--from the West Point cadet cheats to the complex machinations of the computer-based Equity Funding scandal--with the deft touch that has made him a favorite on TV screens and in personal appearances for three decades.  He touches all bases, from employee theft to shoplifting.  With a sensitive social conscience and probing mind, he asks how so much wrongdoing came about--and what it bodes for the future.  But even when Allen is most despairing, he retains his sense of humor, managing eventually to find hope and to provide answers that could lead to a less troubled tomorrow.