In his first book, The Trap: Selling Out to Stay Afloat in Winner-Take-All America, Daniel Brook argues that income inequality between public and private interest careers perpetuates mass inequality by giving people the impossible choice of either being a "a sellout or a saint."

Brook kicked off the Book Club discussion with a post describing how this particular inequality "routes professional talent in ways that, as progressives, we should be very worried about." Though mostly in agreement with Brook, Dana Goldstein suggests that Brook overstates his case when he writes that careers in public service and the arts “have been relegated to a mix of moral giants, mental midgets, and trust fund babies.” Scott Winship is less impressed, still unconvinced that the problem Brook describes is either widespread or more pronounced that it was in the past.