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lovelymisanthrope's review
dark
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
fast-paced
5.0
I read "Evicted" a few years ago, and loved the knowledge I took away from that book, so I was excited to pick up Matthew Desmond's latest book that explores American poverty.
"Poverty, by America" explores why poverty is so prevalent in America, and it presents suggestions about what could be done to amend these horrid situations. Through firsthand accounts of interacting with people below the poverty line, and thorough research on the topic of poverty, Matthew Desmond has created a book that is fraught with knowledge every American who has a heart should be seeking.
As someone who read and loved "Evicted" I was very happy to read some updated content on the housing crisis, especially in relation to what happened to housing because of COVID. It was disheartening to hear that things are no better off now, than they were when he wrote Evicted years ago. However, there was one inspiring story about a group of people in low-income housing that fought back against the system, won, and are making their homes a better place. That should be the American dream.
It is so upsetting to learn just how much of a business it has become to keep the rich rich and to keep the poor suffering. It could be so easy to do something to help those who are struggling, but it would mean the rich cannot cheat the system, and that does not bode well for the people in charge.
I was also shocked to learn, and completely heartbroken how deep racism still runs within low-income housing and poverty. We may have come a long way, but there is still so much more to do to become a country to be proud of.
I highly recommend this book to anyone who is looking to learn more about poverty, and what it truly means to be poor in America.
"Poverty, by America" explores why poverty is so prevalent in America, and it presents suggestions about what could be done to amend these horrid situations. Through firsthand accounts of interacting with people below the poverty line, and thorough research on the topic of poverty, Matthew Desmond has created a book that is fraught with knowledge every American who has a heart should be seeking.
As someone who read and loved "Evicted" I was very happy to read some updated content on the housing crisis, especially in relation to what happened to housing because of COVID. It was disheartening to hear that things are no better off now, than they were when he wrote Evicted years ago. However, there was one inspiring story about a group of people in low-income housing that fought back against the system, won, and are making their homes a better place. That should be the American dream.
It is so upsetting to learn just how much of a business it has become to keep the rich rich and to keep the poor suffering. It could be so easy to do something to help those who are struggling, but it would mean the rich cannot cheat the system, and that does not bode well for the people in charge.
I was also shocked to learn, and completely heartbroken how deep racism still runs within low-income housing and poverty. We may have come a long way, but there is still so much more to do to become a country to be proud of.
I highly recommend this book to anyone who is looking to learn more about poverty, and what it truly means to be poor in America.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Classism and Racism
modernthymes's review
challenging
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
4.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Classism and Racism
Minor: Addiction, Pregnancy, and Abortion
blakeandbooks's review against another edition
informative
reflective
fast-paced
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Classism, Medical content, and Racism
sydapel's review against another edition
informative
fast-paced
4.5
Rating non-fiction feels odd to me, but this was hard hitting in all the right ways. You'd think I'd run out of capacity to be surprised at how conditioned we are to expect needless and easily solved suffering, but unfortunately the depths of the shame I have for how often this country fails it's citizens is endless. I particularly like how directly Desmond calls out middle and upper class Americans for benefitting from the conditions of poverty, especially when we often benefit directly from similar programs.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Classism and Racism
onlyonebookshelf's review against another edition
challenging
informative
sad
fast-paced
5.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Racism
Minor: Slavery and Violence
hillysreads's review against another edition
challenging
informative
reflective
sad
medium-paced
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racism and Xenophobia
theskyboi's review against another edition
Although the information presented was factual and very thoroughly explained, I found the tone and pacing to drag on for too long, leading in repetitive circles of outrage that provided me little in the way of understanding how this crisis could be effectively averted.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Ableism, Medical content, Racism, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Drug use
audreylee's review
challenging
informative
medium-paced
4.0
A thoughtful way of looking at poverty in America. It is nice to have an informative look at poverty where it isn't made into a moral failure.
Content Warnings
Minor: Racism and Classism
aqtbenz's review against another edition
hopeful
informative
inspiring
fast-paced
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Classism
Moderate: Racism and Xenophobia
zombiezami's review against another edition
informative
medium-paced
2.0
I genuinely don't understand why people are praising this book. It's giving radical moderation. The social problems that Desmond describes are very real and important to address, but his conclusions do not follow from the evidence or from how capitalism works.
Desmond's main argument is that it's necessary to be a poverty abolitionist (definitely agree), and that it's possible to abolish poverty and exploitation without dismantling capitalism (wtf?). I don't know how you study the kinds of things Desmond studies in the way that he's studied them and come to that conclusion. He believes it's possible to end poverty by persuading congress to strengthen the IRS to go after rich people who haven't paid their fair share of taxes. Sis, who do you think funds congress and made it so that's the case??
Rich people didn't just forget to pay their taxes. Congress didn't just neglect to collect those taxes. The author seems very invested in a just-world fallacy, and I hope he realizes that soon. It's well known at this point that Exxon found out decades ago that climate change was happening and that human activity, notably fossil fuel use, was causing it. Rather than doing anything to alert the public and help people prepare or divest from fossil fuels, they funded misinformation campaigns that have undermined climate activism to this day. Fast forward to now, rich people are buying bunkers in the hopes of escaping the impact of their actions on the planet and on the people they exploit. The ultra wealthy have a fundamentally different morality. They have to in order to justify having so much while others suffer and die from preventable causes.
Another frustration is that, when the author was talking about people who are in his tax bracket, who are presumably the primary audience for this book, he repeatedly uses the pronoun "we." Are we speaking French? Who is we???
Desmond's main argument is that it's necessary to be a poverty abolitionist (definitely agree), and that it's possible to abolish poverty and exploitation without dismantling capitalism (wtf?). I don't know how you study the kinds of things Desmond studies in the way that he's studied them and come to that conclusion. He believes it's possible to end poverty by persuading congress to strengthen the IRS to go after rich people who haven't paid their fair share of taxes. Sis, who do you think funds congress and made it so that's the case??
Rich people didn't just forget to pay their taxes. Congress didn't just neglect to collect those taxes. The author seems very invested in a just-world fallacy, and I hope he realizes that soon. It's well known at this point that Exxon found out decades ago that climate change was happening and that human activity, notably fossil fuel use, was causing it. Rather than doing anything to alert the public and help people prepare or divest from fossil fuels, they funded misinformation campaigns that have undermined climate activism to this day. Fast forward to now, rich people are buying bunkers in the hopes of escaping the impact of their actions on the planet and on the people they exploit. The ultra wealthy have a fundamentally different morality. They have to in order to justify having so much while others suffer and die from preventable causes.
Another frustration is that, when the author was talking about people who are in his tax bracket, who are presumably the primary audience for this book, he repeatedly uses the pronoun "we." Are we speaking French? Who is we???
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racism, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism
Moderate: Addiction, Ableism, Chronic illness, Medical content, Gaslighting, Death, and Xenophobia
Minor: Colonisation, Abortion, Pregnancy, Drug abuse, Pedophilia, Drug use, Suicide, Child abuse, Sexual harassment, and Pandemic/Epidemic