The Trap: Selling Out to Stay Afloat in Winner-Take-All America | 
| Author: Daniel Brook
Publisher: Holt Paperbacks
Category: Book
List Price: $15.00
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Avg. Customer Rating:  26 reviews
Sales Rank: 82331
Media: Paperback
Edition: 1st
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 288
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.7
Dimensions (in): 7.7 x 5 x 0.7
ISBN: 0805088016
Dewey Decimal Number: 305
EAN: 9780805088014
ASIN: 0805088016
Publication Date: April 1, 2008
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Product Description
“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 Brook 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 America’s financial and social margins or sell out. From the activist who works to give others a living wage but isn’t 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.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 21 more reviews...
 A sobering view July 9, 2008
This is a sobering view about how the choice is no longer between doing something good or being rich, but between doing something good or being able to afford the minimum.
Narrow But Sublimely Argued May 12, 2008
The Trap is another in an emerging line of texts discussing the ground-level impacts of gross inequalities in the distribution of American wealth in the post-Reagen era. Brook improves upon his predecessors with colorful language and probably the most coherent hypothesis: that as prices for basic housing, education, and health care have risen dramatically (largely through purposeful government policies or indirect effects of government policies), modern workers are forced, more-and-more often, to accept employment based on salary alone, which often means "selling out" by serving a master repugnant to one's morals. Though perhaps intuitively undeniable, Brooks articulates and supports this claim through the usual melange of political analysis, well-placed statistics, representative anecdotes, and cynical quotes from corporate demigods. Thoroughly enjoyable, despite the inherently depressing theme and the kid gloves (with which Brook handles those sellout friends of his).
Brook does leave quite a few stones unturned (e.g., the realistic job prospects for those lacking Yale degrees, the effects of globalization and of "race-to-the-bottom" local development politics, anything not happening the San Francisco, etc.), but this just means he might do better next time. The Trap's brevity is the soul of its wit.
Must-Read for Young Americans and Their Parents March 13, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
This book is an engaging and all-too-accurate portrait of the *real* job and life prospects for young members of the former middle class.
Mr. Brook can save you a ton of heartbreak by showing you how the post-college world really works. You'll have a more clear-eyed view of some of the harsh trade-offs you'll probably face and can better understand what you might want to discard--or hang onto no matter what.
Ignore the right-wingers here and their "sell out and grow up" message. As a country we've been steadily declining for 30 years under the aegis of these same discredited ideas.
After all, if you do what they say, give up everything you love, and work hard at a huge corporation, you too can be outsourced. Think how "rich" you'll feel then.
This book helps you know that experience without having to live it quite yet. Or maybe ever.
A Call to Capitalism with a Conscience November 11, 2007
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
for a young writer who grew up in new york, daniel brook provides some good insights into modern day corporate america and it's unintended impact on the social fabric of the country.
there was a time when a college education was a way to bettering your life. nowadays it feels like the only way to stay out of poverty. with companies like google employing college grads as temps with no health benefits or job security, the social order resulting from the rise of the big corporation over the last 60 years is at risk of collapsing. the gap between the haves and the have-nots is forcing even the most idealistic individuals to sell their souls in every aspect of life. as the author points out, thomas jefferson, one of the founding fathers born into nobility, could have led a life of sloth - but as an american he was far too ambitious to settle for that. he envisioned a broad-based middle class, in their pursuit of happiness, as the strongest cohesive force in his dream for the new republic. aristotle, in ancient greece, had already realized that the rich and the poor are both prone to criminality. it is the middle-class that tends to obey the law and provide the backbone. it is time we reminded ourselves of that.
Toward an American Meritocracy August 16, 2007
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
For me, the main point of this book is to support a meritocracy of creative people in America at a crucial point in history when it should be a national imperative. Brook clearly outlines the systemic economic, and political barriers to creativity that impede America's single strategic and global advantage - good ole' Yankee ingenuity. While freedom vs. equality is an important debate- and essential to a real meritocracy - the larger debate now is about promoting American innovation and international relationships in a global context. American leadership needs a full strategic audit that requires a good look at our national social contract to promote creative merit. Rich kids getting richer on inheritence and conventional thinking (like our current commander-in-chief) is not the answer. I don't mind at all that Brook seems to have a chip on his shoulder. We all should. Look around! It's a new world. We need a new strategic America. Achieve that, and it just may become a more humane America too.
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