Book Review: Dissecting complexities of poverty

One of the myths about the United States is that if we all try hard enough, we will succeed. It’s nice to think we just have to “pull ourselves up by our boot straps” or get an education or work harder in order to have that elusive American dream of owning a home, having plenty of food on the table, and money in the bank to pay all of our bills and maybe enough for the “extras” in life.

Author Matthew Desmond in Poverty, By America (Crown, 2023) explains in great detail that poverty is more complex than merely working harder to get ahead.

This isn’t an easy book to get through—at least not for me. It’s full of facts and figures that can be overwhelming. Information that may need to be read or listened to more than once to have it sink in.

Don’t let that stop you from picking up a copy of this book. No one is going to test you on all the data.

What you will likely be left with after the last page is done is a better understanding of poverty in the United States. How it is systemic. How the system is rigged to prevent people from getting ahead. How the banking industry has a huge role in all of this. How lawmakers should be doing more.

Many of the headlines we read are about all the subsidies low income people receive. Desmond, an acclaimed sociologist, points out those in the upper half also get subsidies, they just aren’t called that. The mortgage interest deduction is just one example.

The benefits corporations get—unbelievable. You’ll learn about how corporations contribute to keeping people in poverty; how the dissolution of unions is a huge factor.

Desmond talks about how increased benefits during the pandemic lifted children and adults out of poverty. So, there are proven solutions that work to getting people off the bottom rungs of society.

This really is a must read to better understand poverty, appreciate how people become poor, and learn about the policies that keep people in this predicament no matter how hard they work.