Poverty, by America
Book description
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Evicted reimagines the debate on poverty, making a “provocative and compelling” (NPR) argument about why it persists in America: because the rest of us benefit from it.
“Urgent and accessible . . . Its moral force is a gut…
Why read it?
3 authors picked Poverty, by America as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?
From the opening page, Desmond challenges us to confront our role in maintaining poverty in America. He uses simple examples: Why do we view a tax deduction for home mortgage interest differently than a housing voucher for a low-income renter? Both are government subsidies, yet many people consider the first one “earned” and the second one a “handout.”
Desmond provides many similar examples that force us to confront the varied ways that our society maintains an ongoing underclass. He makes clear that the maintenance of poverty is a choice. If we truly want to end poverty, we can, and he…
From Troy's list on connecting poor health and poverty.
Desmond describes in searing and vivid terms what it means to be poor today, and posits that poverty continues for the simple reason that some in America benefit from it.
Desmond manages the challenge of synthesizing an impassioned critique with facts and ethnography while crafting a narrative. Among other brilliant interventions, he reminds us, at a time when the social safety net gets routinely trashed, that the War on Poverty actually worked to diminish poverty.
His last chapter articulates an argument that I’ve often made: living with forms of inequality hurts all of us. It hurts those who suffer most…
Why do we have so much poverty in America? Matthew Desmond writes that we have such poverty because the rest of American society benefits from having poor people.
This is a tough pill to swallow, but Desmond certainly convinced me. We live in the richest country in the world—with our gated communities, our tax savings and incentives, our private schools, and our ability to weather the economic storms of life.
We needn’t have such high rates of poverty; policymakers at the federal, state, and local levels could make life more bearable for the poor—through schooling, decent wages, health care, and…
From Dennis' list on understanding public policy challenges and failures.
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