Americans are paying more than ever in fees, which are tacked on to the price of everything from utility bills to concert tickets. This money-making mechanism is used widely by both the private and public sector because fees are often far outside the regulatory domain. But Devin Fergus, a professor of history, black studies and public affairs at the University of Missouri, warns that fees are quietly draining the wallets of middle-class Americans who can do little about it. Fergus notes that hidden fees represent a massive wealth transfer whose dimensions are mind-boggling. Subprime mortgages, payday lending, student loans and urban auto insurance now “collectively [cost] working- and middle-class consumers more than roughly $1.46 trillion each year,” he writes in his new book, Land of the Fee: Hidden Costs and the Decline of the American Middle Class .…