“The rise of the Velvet Rope Economy marks an end to the great democratization of American life in the post-World War II era.”
What is the Velvet Rope? The Velvet Rope is a system that uses class segregation to help businesses profit. Think of the fast pass systems at theme parks that only certain family groups can afford. Or the better seats at a sporting event. Or education. Why are businesses profiting from class segregation? How did we get here?
There are tons of examples for everything this book states. You will be familiar with most of them if you have lived in the U.S. for most of your life. If you have not, this might be a big eye opener. Different treatment, benefits, and price discrimination due to socioeconomic status is proven in airline services, theme parks, sporting events, health care, and education to name a few that are used as examples in this book. “It favors the people who have the money…”
The first part of the book is about the super elite that are “inside” of the Velvet Rope (5%-54% on a Kindle), and the second half is about those “outside” of the Velvet Rope (54%-83% on a Kindle). Exclusivity, social brain hypothesis, soft benefits vs. hard benefits, situational inequality, Pareto optimality, and class segregation are used to support the ideology behind the Velvet Rope Economy.
“…people will be left out of the economic system as more and more information accumulates.”
It only focuses on the present and what that looks like right now. It does state that we are headed to a caste system but goes into no further details.
This is a well researched book that is accessible to the average reader.
Visit author Jason Schwartz website to learn more about his book.
Read Publisher’s Weekly review for The Velvet Rope Economy.
Read the New York Times article written by Jason Schwartz covering The Velvet Rope Economy.
Visit his page at Penguin Random House.
Follow Nelson Schwartz on Twitter.
Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for an advance copy. Opinions are my own.
