Poverty, by America

I picked this up because I had really enjoyed reading Desmond's previous book, Evicted. While that book was longer and followed a cast of characters, this book is a direct, bracing jeremiad. Poverty exists, in short, because there are a lot of people who can do well while others suffer. That isn't just billionaires -- if you take the mortgage interest tax deduction, you are getting government largesse. We, as a country, just view that differently from food stamps. I am sure that there are many readers of this book who will not be comfortable having Desmond's sights trained on them. But that's precisely the point. Desmond's writing is passionate but thoroughly backed by his analysis. We don't have to live this way, and other countries don't treat their most vulnerable citizens with such contempt (that's why this is poverty "by America"). Solving poverty is possible; we just have to care enough to do it.

The book is part analysis devoted to debunking most of the oft-repeated myths about poverty and the poor. But while doing that, Desmond turns the tables on the rest of us: poverty exists and persists because we benefit from it, and we like it that way. The second part of the book is all solutions on how to abolish poverty. None of this is easy, and, in the current political climate, advocating for poverty abolition seems hopelessly naive. As Desmond himself notes, it will take collective action and social movements. We're not there yet. And it feels like the countervailing forces currently pushing fascism and theocracy are not running out of steam. It certainly helps that Desmond writes extremely well and clearly. As with Evicted, it's worth reading the end notes. Let's see if Poverty, by America gets as much acclaim as Evicted.

Sociology