Poverty, by America

Thought-provoking
Poverty, by America by Mathew Desmond“Poverty, by America” succinctly addresses a major issue, why is there so much poverty in the richest country of the world? Harvard sociologist and Pulitzer prize-winning author, Mathew Desmond lays out why there is so much poverty in America and what we can do to eliminate it. This captivating 287-page book includes the following nine chapters: 1. The Kind of Problem Poverty Is, 2. Why Haven’t We Made More Progress?, 3. How We Undercut Workers, 4. How We Force the Poor to Pay More, 5. How We Rely on Welfare, 6. How We Buy Opportunity, 7. Invest in Ending Poverty, 8. Empower the Poor, and 9. Tear Down the Walls.Positives:1. A well-written, well-researched book. Desmond writes with clarity and purpose.2. Excellent topic, American poverty.3. The Prologue sets the proper tone of what this book is all about. “America’s poverty is not for lack of resources. We lack something else.”4. Defines what being poor is. “Technically, a person is considered “poor” when they can’t afford life’s necessities, like food and housing.”5. Provides many facts. “Today’s Official Poverty Measure is still based on Orshansky’s calculation, annually updated for inflation. In 2022, the poverty line was drawn at $13,590 a year for a single person and $27,750 a year for a family of four.” “Thirty million Americans remain completely uninsured a decade after the passage of the Affordable Care Act.”6. Thought provoking. “Poverty is the loss of liberty.”7. Looks at the lack of progress concerning addressing poverty. “Nationwide, for every dollar budgeted for TANF in 2020, poor families directly received just 22 cents.”8. The reality about immigrants. “Regardless of their impact on the labor market, immigrants could make a country poorer by relying heavily on welfare benefits. But the poorest immigrants are undocumented, which makes them ineligible for many federal programs, including food stamps, non-emergency Medicaid, and Social Security. Over a typical lifetime, an immigrant will give more to the U.S. government in taxes than he or she will receive in federal welfare benefits.”9. The link between investments and poverty. “Countries that make the deepest investments in their people, particularly through universal programs that benefit all citizens, have the lowest rates of poverty, including among households headed by single mothers.”10. Undercutting workers. “Between 2016 and 2017, the National Labor Relations Board charged 42 percent of employers with violating federal law during union campaigns. In nearly a third of cases, this involved illegally firing workers for organizing.”11. Today’s working class. “As the sociologist Gerald Davis has put it: Our grandparents had careers. Our parents had jobs. We complete tasks. That’s been the story of the American working class and working poor, anyway.”12. Exploitation defined. “When we are underpaid relative to the value of what we produce, we experience labor exploitation. And when we are overcharged relative to the value of something we purchase, we experience consumer exploitation.”13. Racism. “In the not-so-distant past (from 1934 to 1968), banks didn’t do business in poor and Black communities because the federal government refused to insure mortgages there.”14. Poverty and lack of options. “Poverty isn’t simply the condition of not having enough money. It’s the condition of not having enough choice and being taken advantage of because of that.”15. Exposes myths. “Studies have consistently identified two long-standing beliefs harbored by the American public. First, Americans tend to believe (wrongly) that most welfare recipients are Black. This is true for both liberals and conservatives. Second, many Americans still believe Blacks have a low work ethic.”16. The reality of welfare. “Only a quarter of families who qualify for Temporary Assistance for Needy Families apply for it. Less than half (48 percent) of elderly Americans who qualify for food stamps sign up to receive them.”17. American subsidies. “Here’s the bottom line: The most recent data compiling spending on social insurance, means-tested programs, tax benefits, and financial aid for higher education show that the average household in the bottom 20 percent of the income distribution receives roughly $25,733 in government benefits a year, while the average household in the top 20 percent receives about $35,363. Every year, the richest American families receive almost 40 percent more in government subsidies than the poorest American families.”18. The affluence effect. “As people accumulate more money, they become less dependent on public goods and, in turn, less interested in supporting them.”19. Discusses ways to combat poverty. “We should significantly deepen our collective investment in economic stability and basic dignity, promoting “a right to a decent existence—to some minimum standard of nutrition, healthcare, and other essentials of life,” to quote the economist Arthur Okun. “Starvation and dignity do not mix well.””20. Addresses the source of funding for eliminating poverty. “Where would the money come from? The best place to start, in my view, is with the cheaters. The IRS now estimates that the United States loses more than $1 trillion a year in unpaid taxes, most of it owing to tax avoidance by multinational corporations and wealthy families.”21. Excellent Epilogue.Negatives:1. Lack of visual supplementary materials.2. Let’s be honest, this book is not as good as Evicted but still very useful.3. Societal shaming.4. A little more ranting than I look to see.In summary, this is a very good book on poverty. Desmond is succinct and provides many facts to back his key points. It can’t live up to his Pulitzer prize-winning book Evicted but it still provides the goods. I would have like to see more concrete practices around the world that have worked to combat poverty. More visual material would have helped too. A thought-provoking read. I recommend it!Further recommendations: “Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City” by Mathew Desmond, “American Hunger” by Eli Saslow, “The New Jim Crow” by Michelle Alexander, “Slavery by Another Name“ by Douglas A. Blackmon, “$2.00 a Day” by Kathryn J. Edin, “Not a Crime to be Poor” by Peter Edelman, “Nickel and Dimed” by Barbara Ehrenreich, “The Working Poor” by David K. Shipler, “Nomadland” by Jessica Bruder, and “Poverty in America” by John Iceland.

Read this book.
The author does an amazing job in bringing together the causes and effects of poverty in America. The fact that American poverty stems from affluence rather than scarcity should be a paradigm change in political policy.

American Poverty and its Causes
Why is poverty in the United States so commonplace? It’s true that poverty exists in every nation, but among developed, western nations, the United States ranks among the very worst. The causes and cures of this illness are examined in the pages of Poverty, by America.According to official data, poverty inflicts about one- eight of the U.S. population. There is plenty of wealth to go around, but it tends to not make its way to the people at the bottom of the income scale, who need it most. This book takes the position that our systems, our tax laws, our racism, and our affluent are all to blame. The way our economy works and the way our government laws are written, the fact of poverty is almost a certainty.I like that this book attacks specific problems that keep the poor in poverty, like payday loans, lack of affordable housing, etc. Even the way banks charge fees hits the poor hardest because they are more likely to get hit with an overdraft fee- often out of necessity because a bill is due and they are forced to write a check- and the fee is going to be more difficult for them to absorb. These are problems, yes, and our current system does, in many ways, play a role in keeping the poor in their place.How do we eliminate the menace of poverty once and for all? Well, the book suggests raising all incomes of the impoverished to a point that would get them at or above the current poverty line. It doesn’t say how this would be best accomplished, but it does mention many avenues to consider, like eliminating the mortgage interest deduction, since it primarily benefits upper class individuals. Other tax loopholes for the rich need to be closed and then, we could use universal basic income or something like that to pull people out of poverty.Would this be sufficient? Well, the book only mentions this as a starting point. Chances are, more reforms would be needed because reaching just the poverty line is still inadequate for a family to squeeze out a living and take care of basics. The book doesn’t specify what other measures to take but if I were going to suggest some, they might include raising the upper marginal tax rate, raising corporate tax rates, etc.It’s admirable to want to take on the problem of poverty, but this book is too short and too brief to serve as the complete blueprint for change I was looking for. It does get you thinking about the problem and how best to solve, but it leaves many questions unanswered. It gives you a taste of the problem and its causes, but it doesn’t directly address how to get from point a to point b. Still, I like the book’s passion and I agree that the richest country on earth needs to do more to ensure that its poorest citizens have an opportunity for a better tomorrow.

Until now, no author has dug as deep into the roots of America’s failure to deal with poverty and all of the factors that create it in the first place. This book will make every reader want to change the way he or she does things.

An excellent description of poor Americans. Written by an American sociologist who worked in all sorts of low-paid jobs to pay for his studies.