Review by Choice Review
In the 2016 presidential campaign, Bernie Sanders claimed "the system is rigged." Brookings Institution fellow Richard Reeves doesn't disagree with that statement, though he takes issue with where the rigging occurs. For Reeves, it's not the top 1 percent but rather the rest of the top quintile--his "upper middle class"--that has garnered the lion's share of the income gains and has worked hard to protect its position in society. He points to our zoning policies, mortgage interest deductions, and other favored tax treatments (though he strangely omits deductions for charitable contributions). His biggest bugaboo is college admissions policies that give preferences to "legacies"--that is, applicants from alumni families. The book is a welcome basis for discussions in policy circles and among friends, but is largely derivative and too short--150 pages of text with a lot of interchapter repetitions and 30 pages of endnotes--to represent any "final word" on the important contemporary topic of income inequality. And while for the most part the author does not wear his political leanings on his sleeve, there is implicitly a bias in his selection of issues and sources he includes and those he ignores. Summing Up: Recommended. All readership levels. --Allen R. Sanderson, University of Chicago
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review