The Velvet Rope Economy: How Inequality Became Big Business

Product Description
From New York Times business reporter Nelson D. Schwartz comes a bold and urgent investigation of division between the wealthy and the middle class n every arena of American life.
In nearly every realm of daily life--from health care to education, highways to home security--there is an invisible velvet rope that divides how Americans live. On one side of the rope, for a price, red tape is cut, lines are jumped, appointments are secured, and doors are opened. On the other side, middle- and working-class Americans fight to find an empty seat on the plane, a place in line with their kids at the amusement park, a college acceptance, or a hospital bed.
     We are all aware of the gap between the rich and everyone else, but when we weren't looking, business innovators stepped in to exploit it, shifting services away from the masses and finding new ways to profit by serving the privileged. And as decision-makers and corporate leaders increasingly live on the friction-free side of the velvet rope, they are less inclined to change--or even notice--the obstacles everyone else must contend with. Schwartz's "must read" book takes us on a behind-the-scenes tour of this new reality and shows the toll the velvet rope divide takes on society.
Review
“If you’ve wondered how today’s rich live—why they speed past us at ball games and amusement parks, how a select few never have to wait to see top doctors—you need to read
The Velvet Rope Economy. You’ll never look at boarding a plane—or privilege and polarization—the same way.”
—Charles Duhigg, bestselling author of The Power of Habit
“Schwartz’s tour of the modern economy is a study of not just how the market carves consumers into separate tribal groups, but of how it can create countries within countries whose borders—however velvet—are incontrovertibly real.”
—Kanishk Tharoor, The New Republic
“Everyone has heard that America is suffering through a second Gilded Age of economic extremes and new levels of privilege and inequality. But very few people are aware of the detailed architecture that builds inequality into daily life. That is what makes Nelson Schwartz’s account of the hidden history of privilege so revealing and fascinating—and so important."
—James Fallows, winner of the National Book Award and author of Our Towns: A 100,000-Mile Journey Into the Heart of America
“Timely and essential . . . Through careful reporting and entertaining storytelling, Schwartz unpacks the degree to which wealth insulates the privileged, as well as the dangers of our free-falling transformation into a caste-based society.”
—Esquire
“A masterpiece of beautifully written, carefully reported social commentary. Schwartz is able to take everyday things we already know—like the fact that the rich get to live a life entirely distinct from the rest of us—and shows, through colorful tales and great storytelling, that this is no curiosity. It is an indictment, a warning, a prediction, and a nuanced vision of our society. This book will become essential reading to understand this moment. But don’t let the grandness of his work scare you: it’s a fun, surprising read filled with unexpected peeks into the perquisites of superwealth.”
—Adam Davidson, co-founder of Planet Money and author of The Passion Economy: The New Rules for Thriving in the Twenty-First Century
"Explains how everything Americans purchase—travel, leisure, education, and health care—suddenly got really good for the wealthy and a lot worse for the rest of us . . . This is a book that will likely make you very, very mad. It will also, however, provide some context on why you feel so mad, and perhaps give a sense of clarity about what it all means and how to fix it."
—Vox.com
“Sometimes it takes real insight to understand what is staring you in the face. How often have you gritted your teeth as someone strolled past you to the front of the line? Or watched the curtain close to