Daniel Brooks' the Trap is now being discussed in a book club over at TPM Cafe. It's sort of weird to think that Dana's being counter-intuitive when she suggests that maybe, just maybe, folks who want to pursue spiritually fulfilling, somewhat low-paying careers might make a tradeoff between income and personal happiness. And that she's being something near radical when she hints that veering towards the personal happiness side of the ledger may actually be a good idea, even if you do spend your 20s in a group home. Part of why unfulfilling jobs pay high money is that money is one way of compensating individuals for high-value labor that's not the most enjoyable thing they could be doing. But that doesn't mean folks who don't want those positions need to take them.
Meanwhile, Chris Hayes makes an interesting point when he worries that "if you are, say, a corporate lawyer who spends all days writing briefs defending a big corporation from burdensome regulations, you can't help but begin to think that the regulations actually are burdensome. You'd have to be a kind of sociopath not to...If these same people were working in the schools or at non-profits, their politics would remain, I think, more robustly progressive, even radical in some instances. But instead they end up being shaped by the beliefs of those around whom they work, and when it comes time to donate to candidates they support those who share their economic views."
This is true, and important. But one thing we can do is refrain from assuming that there's broad tension between a high-paying job and progressive attitudes The term "selling out," which comes in Chris's post and is sprinkled throughout Daniel Brook's book, is illuminative here. Nobody wants to remain part of a political party that condescends to their life choices. The progressive movement -- and I mean the real progressive movement, not the fundraisers in the party -- should be reaching out to the liberal professional class and helping them get involved, not treating them with a mixture of disdain and suspicion.
