by Donald L. Barlett. (Get the Book)Billionaire Warren Buffet famously observed that class warfare has been going on for decades, and my class is winning. Pulitzer Prize and National Magazine Award winners Barlett and Steele scored a best-seller decrying such class warfare with America: What Went Wrong? (1992). Betrayal carries their powerful critique forward into the present. For Barlett and Steele, middle class working households earned $35,000-$85,000 in 2009; that's 34 million households, with 58 million earning less and 24 million more. The ruling class betraying middle Americans is a mix of politicians and special interests who've gamed the system on behalf of the richest Americans. The authors trace the process of that betrayal from early deregulation fever (airlines and trucking) in the 1970s through today's warnings of debt infernos, unaffordable entitlements, and the need for austerity. Working in collaboration with American University's Investigation Reporting Workshop, Barlett and Steele address key elements of this betrayal (globalization, outsourcing, taxes, pensions, financial-sector dominance), then offer suggestions for reversing it, including progressive tax reform, fair trade, infrastructure investment, focused retraining, and criminal prosecution of white-collar criminals. --Booklist
