Matthew Desmond

I should imagine that there are quite a few people who hate this book and think that he has got it all wrong but what can't really be argued is that the ways in which we try to reduce poverty are not working. And Desmond argues that this is because the rich want the status quo. Someone is always making money out of poverty and it is this that needs to be stopped.

I listened to this as an audiobook but it is one that would be better being read as a book because it is so hard to go back and find quotes and there are obviously no page numbers. Desmond argues that we are all to blame for poverty because we don't stand up and shout about it and even when we do have successes, we don't shout about those either. There are several interesting ideas for reducing poverty, none of which are earth shattering:

Pay a decent minimum wage. This in itself has the power to make a significant difference. It offers stability and fairness to those who wait and clean and do all those jobs that most of us wouldn't want to do but like to have others who will do it.

Unionise - it is these groups that fight for social/class/race justice, fair working conditions and pay and are on the side of workers. If we have to wait for each Starbucks or Amazon workplace to do this, we will wait for ever. Desmond encourages us to ask 'Who benefits?' when we see the unfair work practices and pay.

Affordable housing where maintenance is a priority so that tenants are not left in conditions that are unsuitable to live in.

Benefits that are universal and then targetted. He states that it is only the wealthy who can get mortgage interest relief because the poor can't get bank accounts never mind loans to buy houses they can afford.

Ensure that schools are excellent so that everybody has the chance to learn which means the same funding, staffing, resourcing and opportunities.

I don't know how this book would be received in America, who likes to be told they are part of the problem, but it is an interesting discussion particularly as some of these ideas have roots in research and trials. What would happen if there were a county or state that did it all? That set out to reduce poverty and this drove all of their policies. I wonder who would complain?

A fascinating and well-written narrative around poverty that was like listening to a story.… (altro)

"An Amazon Best Book of March 2023: Matthew Desmond’s Evicted, published in 2017, won the Pulitzer and, perhaps more surprising, was a best-seller. Evicted followed eight families in Milwaukee as they fought to keep roofs over their heads—as readers, we were drawn into their stories and their struggles under a housing system that seemed designed against them. Desmond’s new book, Poverty, by America, does not take such an intimate approach but may be an even more vital work. In Poverty, he draws back the lens to illustrate how poverty injures the impoverished—physically, financially, and spiritually—and how the wealthiest country in the world has developed a bifurcated system that favors those who are better off (in the form of tax breaks, hoarded benefits, and walled-off communities). With so many resources available, Desmond argues that poverty could be abolished fairly easily in the U.S. There’s just one hitch: those whom the system favors must be willing to give up some of their advantages. This is a book that is bound to start a lot of conversations, and it will ask difficult questions of readers of all political stripes. They are questions well worth asking, and answering." (Chris Schluep, Amazon Editor)

“[Desmond’s] arguments have the potential to push debate about wealth in America to a new level. . . . The brilliance of Poverty, By America . . . is provided by effective storytelling, which illustrates that poverty has become a way of life.” (The Guardian)

“Poverty, by America is a searing moral indictment of how and why the United States tolerates such high levels of poverty and of inequality . . . [and] a hands-on call to action.” (The Nation)

“A fierce polemic on an enduring problem . . . [Desmond] writes movingly about the psychological scars of poverty . . . and his prose can be crisp, elegant, and elegiac.” (The Economist)

"#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."

"ONE OF THE CALIFORNIA REVIEW OF BOOKS’ TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR • A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: The New Yorker, The New York Times Book Review, NPR, Oprah Daily, Time, The Star Tribune, Vulture, The Christian Science Monitor, Chicago Public Library, Esquire, She Reads, Library Journal"… (altro)

It's no wonder why this book received the Pulitzer Prize. It's filled with stories from real people from different walks of life...renters and landlords, and does a wonderful job of sharing authentic stories of poverty. Matthew Desmond does an excellent job of explaining how different and similar everyone's situation is once they are trapped in the cycle of poverty-renting-eviction and rinse/repeat. It is so hard to get ahead once you have little to no income, the majority of your income goes to rent and every scrap after that is spent to survive.
It's heartbreaking and thought provoking and hopefully evokes some compassion as well.… (altro)