Matt is your typical 15-year-old genius--bored with school, playing basketball with his friends, uber-techy. He lives in a world where families have a government-set limit on their spending, where if they go over budget their kids are sent to a workhouse to pay off the debt. It's not quite a dystopia, though there are hints that it's set in a more futuristic society. 
 As expected, Matt's parents go over the limit and he's sent to a workhouse. And because he's brilliant, he works on the top floor, which is any teenage kid's dream--you can buy anything you want, order anything to eat, and have free use of a gym and swimming pool. He makes a couple friends and the whole thing is like one big vacation, until he realized a lot of kids getting headaches. And he couldn't contact the outside world at all. So he does some investigating. 
 The limit itself is an interesting concept. You would think it would make parents be cautious of their spending, but it's frightening the number of kids that are enrolled in this workhouse program. And in the beginning of the book, we see how frivolous people spend money--Matt's mother buys a bunch of unnecessary things at the store, thinking she'll never go over her limit. Like it will never happen to her family. 
 I wish there was more indication of what era this took place in, though. There are subtleties that indicate it's in the future, but it's never clearly defined. Also, since Matt is a genius and into computer hacking and technology, I had expected to see more of his interest in the field. But he's still a normal kid, despite his intelligence, so it's a fine line. 
 But it teaches something about responsibility, both on the kid and adult side. Kids think their parents should take care of everything, but this book shows that the children have a big part of it, too. Without these genius kids and their illegal investigations, the truth would have never been revealed.