First published 2023
Garrett Neiman operates in the elite circles of American power, tasked with persuading billionaires to open their wallets for charitable causes. His work grants him access to spaces most never see: the corner offices of billionaires, the boardrooms of Goldman Sachs and McKinsey, the inner sanctums of Stanford and Harvard. Through this insider position, Neiman exposes how wealthy white men maintain their grip on power across generations. He reveals the mechanisms that allow advantages to compound like interest, creating trajectories that exclude others while preserving elite status. The book takes readers inside these exclusive enclaves to understand how inequality gets justified and perpetuated. Neiman presents data showing how America's wealth gap has widened over three decades, with the richest growing richer while the poor sink deeper into poverty. Yet his analysis goes beyond documenting the problem. He offers concrete strategies for persuading elites toward progressive change and provides a blueprint for transforming America into an equitable democracy. The book argues that dismantling current systems will liberate everyone, including the morally impoverished wealthy themselves.
Genres: business, american, economics, non-fiction, 21st-century, academic
Vibes: intimate, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: investigative-journalism, social-commentary
Setting: America, Goldman Sachs, Harvard, McKinsey, Stanford
Period: 21st-century
384 pages · Hardcover · Legacy Lit