"In 1970, when starting teachers in New York City made just $2,000 less than starting Wall Street lawyers, people who wanted to teach taught," Brook explains. "Today, when starting teachers make $100,000 less than starting corporate lawyers and have been priced out of the region's homeownership market, the considerations are very different." Brook also cites Ellen Willis, the cultural critic and feminist, who savored reminding readers that she could once live for months in the East Village off the fee she made from one magazine feature. Salaries in many fields that attract creative, liberally educated people -- teaching and journalism to name only two -- have stagnated while the costs of education, housing and healthcare have gone through the roof. All of which raises a few questions: What would the social movements of the 1960s have looked like if baby boomer collegians had been stifled by the same educational debt as their children? What if they hadn't been buoyed by the broadly shared prosperity of the postwar era, or subsidized by a ratio of minimum wage to living expenses far more forgiving than what their offspring face in most metropolitan centers today?
Similar questions were asked -- and answered -- decades ago by prescient right-wing organizers. As Brook explains in his introduction: "Conservatives saw what America looked like in the 1960s, with the most equal distribution of wealth in its history and liberals sitting-in and marching for even more, and they didn't like what they saw. The wealthy were being taxed to open up their elite colleges to bring middle- and working-class students. The students were questioning authority, not cozying up to it in hopes of landing a job."
"The Trap" devotes one chapter to tracing the ensuing backlash (William F. Buckley founds the National Review, Barry Goldwater runs for president, Reagan's political star begins to climb in California) and outlining the economic policies it implemented (slashing income tax rates for the rich).
The outcome is a concentration of wealth not seen since the Gatsby era. "On Reagan's watch," Brook writes, "the number of households with incomes over $50,000 doubled, the number of millionaires nearly tripled, and the number of billionaires quadrupled." America's transformation into a nation with "literally millions of millionaires" has driven prices sky-high as working- and middle-class people compete with the ultra-affluent for finite goods like slots at prestigious colleges for their children and housing in desirable metropolitan areas. The postwar America, where progressive taxation meant blue-collar folk could afford to live in the same neighborhood as doctors and lawyers, or where an inner-city public school teacher's yearly salary could pay the annual tuition at an eminent private university more than twice over, is long gone.
Thus "The Trap" isn't solely about would-be revolutionaries -- it's about anyone who aspires to become or stay a part of America's crumbling middle class. Besides education, we're often told that the quickest path to achieving the American dream is entrepreneurship. In his chapter on self-employment, Brook convincingly documents the disconnect between dream and reality. Surveys show that almost twice as many Americans as Europeans have considered starting their own business, yet only 7.3 percent of our workforce takes the leap, compared with 14.7 percent across the pond.
Brook has an explanation for this seeming paradox: universal healthcare. "In Europe, working for yourself doesn't affect your healthcare coverage," he explains. "America is thwarting the very ambition that has long defined its people."
No doubt Brook will take some heat from people who dismiss him on biography alone: a Yale graduate whining about the plight of other privileged, private school alumni. Aren't there a lot of people worse off we should be worrying about? Granted, it's not always easy to muster sympathy for the Ivy League "sellouts" profiled, many of whom seem a little too eager to believe that yuppiedom has become compulsory in this country. But by illuminating the economic realities that have compelled their compromises -- and avoiding sanctimoniously siding with the "saints" -- Brook convincingly argues that the problem is political, not personal. Many 20- and 30-somethings are unable to accept the sacrifices now entailed by the activist path, which is just how the architects of the conservative backlash wanted it.
So the question becomes, what kind of future's in store when even children of relative privilege can't afford to work for the public good? The answer is a scary one.
After reading "The Trap," I'd wager the future we're facing overflows with anxiety and self-loathing. When a generation reared to revere the idea of a meritocracy finds that a college degree -- even one with honors from an Ivy -- doesn't guarantee middle-class comfort, let alone career fulfillment, cognitive dissonance ensues. Parents blame their offspring for failing to succeed (they gave them every advantage, after all), the offspring blame themselves (they jumped through all the right hoops), and few blame the system. As the competition to join or stay middle-class becomes fiercer, solidarity disappears and the barriers to membership in this insecure and apprehensive class grow higher. According to the New York Times, 2007 was the "most selective spring in modern memory at America's elite schools." You can bet that next year another record will be set.
While I have no quibbles with Brook's prognosis or diagnosis (that we need a "new New Deal": equitable access to higher education, reduced working hours, a less obscene salary gap, universal healthcare), I remain conflicted. On the one hand, the tale of would-be activists and artists -- forced to choose between living by their ideals or making a living -- is one I can relate to. In order to pursue my interests, I've followed in the footsteps of many of Brook's subjects: leaving New York City for greener (that is, cheaper) pastures, a stint back with Mom and Dad, going without insurance, and paying only the monthly minimum to keep my in student loan debt from mushrooming ($40,000 is more than enough, let me tell you).
But I also know that social movements have long been made by people far worse off than this indebted generation. Two powerful revolts currently under way in this country -- the Iraq Veterans Against the War and the push for immigrants' rights -- are led by individuals without wealth or privilege, though they have much to lose. Protesting vets risk seeing their meager benefits revoked, a prospect that puts their mental and physical health and their ability to afford college in serious jeopardy. Immigrants brave enough to speak out put their jobs on the line and gamble with the possibility of deportation. We need the new New Deal that Brook eloquently argues for. But some committed individuals -- call them saints, if you must -- are going to have to make some major sacrifices if we're ever going to win it.
About the writer
Astra Taylor is a writer and filmmaker. She directed "Zizek!" (2005) and her first book, "Shadow of the Sixties," is forthcoming from the New Press.
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