Summary Of The Child In The Basement By David Brooks

Making a living and living your life can be misconstrued as meaning the same thing. The American dream can sometimes only feel possible when you're dead asleep but sometimes we are too exhausted to even dream. Your job is simply what you do; it does not define you and your title should never confine you. What career field you choose to be in should not be decided based off of what's readily available but based off of what you need to do to live a happy and comfortable lifestyle. Everyone wants to experience happiness, but if happiness was a pie and you found yourself satisfied after having two slices, would you decide to share the rest of it with someone who is hungry? Or would you get greedy and keep it for yourself even though you are full?
Social inequality and economic disadvantages are what the wealthy have deceivingly used to their advantage to make the world go round. In the article, Brooks stated, "Companies succeed because they fire people, even if a whole family depends on them. Schools become prestigious because they reject people-even if they put a lifetime of work into their application. Leaders fighting a war on terror accidentally kill innocents. These are children in the basement of our survival and happiness."(2) This is pinpointing what the "American Dream" mentality is. In order for there to be wealthy people, there has to be this constant in which shoves what poor people can't afford right in their face by having them work to make the expensive things that only the rich can afford. The upper class thrives on the people at the bottom; their happiness is solely based on having other beneath them. They need to stay on top of this economic pyramid and it is because of that fear of knowing that they too can easily fall down that slippery slope what keeps them from giving to those who truly need. They do not want to risk giving anyone leverage in any way whether it's through feeding them knowledge or feeding them food, they do not want to feed those starving to make it period. Brooks effort in trying to educate
Through the same talents that have brought them much success, they have utilized for a good cause to effectively raise awareness of what's really going on. The importance of knowing that everything does not need to be as complicated as those who benefit from instilling that fear into us want us to believe is vital. It's vital to every person who is in the working class to understand; that the powerful people want us to compete with each other and want us to have race wars because they know it will cause hate within the working class who is of all colors and races. It works out too perfect for them; we are puppets on their strings. They play certain sides when it's beneficial to them then mass exploits it through the media targeting enormous but specific crowds at once. It's a dangerous yet tactful move because this trickle effect makes them