The Trap | Daniel Brook | Talks at Google
32Rising 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. And it's not just impoverished teachers and social workers, struggling to pay their rent, who are hurt. 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, The Trap presents a damning indictment of the economic and political landscape that traps young Americans. It examines the struggles between passions and paychecks.
Daniel Brook is a journalist whose writing has appeared in Slate, Harper's, Dissent, The San Francisco Chronicle, and The Boson Globe, among other publications. Brook was a finalist in the 2003 Livingston Awards for Young Journalists and won the 2000 Rolling Stone College Journalist Competition while a student at Yale. He lives in Philadelphia. Visit his website at http://www.daniel-brook.com
This event took place on May 8, 2008, at Google's headquarters in Mountain View, Ca, as a part of the Authors@Google series.