The Trap: Selling Out to Stay Afloat in Winner-Take-All America

Takes dead aim at the conservative economic consensus that has dominated U.S. politics . . . Biting and necessary.―The American Prospect. In this witty and revealing polemic journalist Daniel Brooks The Trap argues that the exploding income gap―a product of the conservative ascendance―is systematically dismantling the American dream as debt-laden well-educated young people are torn between their passions and the pressure to earn six-figure incomes. . Rising education housing and health-care costs have made it virtually impossible for all but the corporate elite to enjoy what were once considered middle-class comforts. Thousands are afflicted with a wrenching choice: take up residence on Americas financial and social margins or sell out. From the activist who works to give others a living wage but isnt paid one himself to the universal health-care advocate who becomes a management consultant for Big Pharma Brook presents a damning indictment of the economic and political landscape that traps young Americans.