According to commonly repeated reports, wages and personal incomes have stagnated in the United States over the past twenty-five years for average Americans. A corollary argument asserts that the combination of flat living standards for the masses and rising standards for a privileged few have created a number of social ills.

Spoiled Rotten presents a simple and contradictory argument: properly measured standards of material well-being have grown for practically all U.S. residents over the past twenty-five years, and this fantastic growth is responsible for a variety of negative social consequences.

The problems the authors attribute to the growth in wealth include employment issues such as job selection and security, family issues such as illegitimacy and divorce, rising crime trends, educational issues such as sluggish SAT scores, and others. Further, the authors discuss how wealth has allowed Americans to create problems out of thin air, including many of the supposed environmental dangers, health care expenditures, and safety regulation.