The Unwinding, George Packer

The book tells the story of the past three decades through the lives of several Americans. It interweaves these intimate stories with bio sketches of the era’s leading public figures. It precisely portrays a superpower in danger of coming apart at the seams; its institutions no longer working; and the vast majority of Americans left to improvise their own schemes for survival, let alone success. Seismic shifts during a single generation have brought a political system to the verge of breakdown. The old American dream: get an education, get a job, do right, be honorable, and everything will work out right… that’s gone. It’s become a land of thieves and high-level executives whose ideology is “What’s in it for me?” Where celebrities' PR claims they want to save the earth, while they fly around the world in private jets.  What’s even more sad is this book was released in 2013.  The continued corruption of those “at the top” should sicken you to your very core.