Rigging the Game: How Inequality Is Reproduced in Everyday Life

by Michael Schwalbe

In Rigging the Game --a brief, accessible introduction to the study of inequality in American society--Michael Schwalbe investigates how inequality is both created and reproduced. Guided by the questions How did the situation get this way? and How does it stay this way?, Schwalbe tracks
inequality from its roots to its regulation. In the final chapter, "Escaping the Inequality Trap," he also shows how inequality can be overcome. Throughout, Schwalbe's engaging writing style draws students into the material, providing instructors with a solid foundation for discussing this
challenging and provocative subject.

With its lively combination of incisive analysis and compelling fictional narratives, Rigging the Game is an innovative teaching tool--not only for courses on stratification, but also for social problems courses, introductory sociology courses, and any course that takes a close look at how the
inequalities of race, class, and gender are perpetuated.

Genres: Sociology, Nonfiction, School, Economics, Social Justice

295 pages, Paperback

First published October 31, 2007

Reviews

[Reigan Dunkle]

~Read for class~

[Porscha · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a really great intro to how inequality works in the United States - seriously. I read it to think about using it for my Social Problems class this semester, and though I decided against it this semester in favor of The Missing Class, I am re-considering it for my Spring class.

[Shinynickel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really great, clear explanation on how systems of inequality get set up and maintained, such that most of the people maintaining them don't have to personally support inequality -- may even personally be against it -- they just have to not know about/care enough/or know how to change things.

[Molly Lane · Rating 1 out of 5]

extremely average sociology book that states a lot of very obvious information

[Suzanne Ondrus · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an excellent book! Although I did not read this initially for teaching, I am eager to use it for teaching. I love the fiction chapters to illustrate the concepts. This book makes visible what is invisible- mechanisms of power. It is very easy to understand. I shall have my students in Burkina read it.

[Emma Hernandez · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked it, but felt it kind of gave really general thoughts on inequality and didn't connect to real events. Maybe that was the author's goal. Overall, it was a good read.

[Tamara · Rating 4 out of 5]

O.K., this may be a text, but a damn good text.

[Joel Beebe · Rating 5 out of 5]

fairly in-depth analysis of how inequality is reproduced and how it started. Turns out, giving corporations the same rights as people wasn't a good idea. Who woulda thunk it?

My biggest takeaway is the sheer amount of economic reification that goes on in our society. What the corporatocracy wants us to view as a natural function, an immutable fact of the watertight science of economics, tends to be a manipulable condition set by the government and played with by corporate boardrooms. This idea underscores my hesitancy to even have a discussion about economics with someone, because most economic beliefs, especially in our neoliberal paradigm, boil down to a kind of economic determinism.

Another key takeaway, as I read more and more and learn more and more about society in general, is my culpability in that system just by nature of being in the relationships I'm in. We live in a cognitively dissonant society, and I can't help but feel like everything I read is some kind of CIA psyop feeding me analysis that is inaccurate or "what they want me to believe." Maybe I'm paranoid, or maybe it's just the nature of my privileged position in society.

There is hope. Schwalbe talks a lot about the way that our interactions foster inequality. Things like sexist language, stereotypes, and the way we interact with each other in general, whether that's relationships between professors and students, bosses and employees, children and parents, strangers, etc. This perspective really energizes my thirst for different perspectives, a thirst everyone really needs. Yes, I'm talking about affirmative actioning the YouTube algorithms, the books you read, and all around the content you consume.

Schwalbe also has kind of given me hope for a cooptation of the current system by the people, but also I don't know there is still a lot of vestigal stuff in our society ie economic mechanisms that are completely manmade and exist to perpetuate inequality. One problem I have with the book is that he talks about invisible ideologies, while at the same time defines ideology in a way that is both inconsistent with the popular conception of ideologies and excuses himself from having to disclose his own ideology. Maybe its because he's an anarchist and wouldn't get published by oxford if he did, or maybe he's a CIA psyop. Fuck.

[Isabel May · Rating 5 out of 5]

The reproduction of inequality is occurring daily in our lives, and our behaviors--whether conscious or subconscious-- are allowing it to continue. Schwalbe did an incredible job at depicting the small things in our everyday lives we don't think twice about that are allowing inequality to live on. His theories about ways to change the "rules of the game" are thought provoking and if the world would stop to think about the unfairness in our laws, policies, relationships, and day-to-day lives, change could be achieved. I highly recommend this book to any who wish to learn more about the ongoing inequality crisis and how one could help improve it.

[Brien · Rating 4 out of 5]

Prejudices of race, class and gender permeate far more than our financial bottom line. Sociologist Schwalbe's very readable and fairly short volume exposes the inherent falsehood of the "level playing field" promulgated by the self-identified capitalists of the right. Annoyed at the state of America and wondering how to frame your arguments? Rigging the Game is an extraordinary primer on what's wrong and how it got that way.

[Peyton Deal · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful introductory book to inequality with many great counter arguments to the typical points presented when discussing systemic problems within the United States. The fiction chapters served as great metaphors and means of seeing the issues in action. Reading this in 2020 is even more interesting as many of the things Schwalbe wrote about over a decade ago are proving to be true and happening in real time.

[Punk Johnny Cash · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is so much easier to read than the other book of his I picked up, "Psychosocial Consequences of Natural and Alienated Labor" and I suggest it. It would be a good introduction or premier for people who still cling to beliefs in liberalism or capitalism to begin to show some of these ideologies and begin to comprehend a more materialist, marxist or critical view.

[Brian Hull · Rating 3 out of 5]

Largely a recycled bunch of good arguments for altering inequality from a Marxist perspective. Nothing novel here. As well, I prefer to hear about ideas for resolving inequality from Economists, not Sociologists.

[Pete Stoppani · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent and easy to read book on inequality and the prejudices (and other factors and everyday behaviors) perpetuate it.

Great discussions on the human-created (ie. not natural as assumed by most of us) concepts like corporations, class, race, and gender are major components of inequality.

[Fred Phillips · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book made me question everything I was taught about Politics, Civics, American History, and act. Every college student should read this book.

[Shane Thayer · Rating 5 out of 5]

I strongly suggest this book. Easy read and great introduction on the material. If you are looking to understand the ideas behind anti-capitalist thought it's a good start

[Susanna]

Can you tell I just finished one of my classes? At least I get to add them to my reading goal✊

[Abby Rowe · Rating 4 out of 5]

had to read for soci1101 but was actually very impressed!! offers some great points on capitalism, hedgoemasculity, and arrested imaginations!! very thought provoking

[Tj Thomas · Rating 1 out of 5]

This would be a good book to get a basic explanation of inequalities and how they work and are reproduced. I wanted more from it though.