Thank you to Net Galley and the publisher for an ARC. I believe this book is so necessary in the discussion on why we have so much poverty in such a wealthy country like America. The author lays out beautifully the many reasons and, due to the systems that have been created (historically to keep certain groups down), many of us contribute to the ongoing crisis. This is a book that will change the way that one looks at this issue and possibly will encourage people to make small and large changes so that everyone can one day have security, prosperity and eventually true freedom.

POVERTY, BY AMERICA by Matthew Desmond (Evicted) has been getting quite a bit of attention lately, including coverage in The New York Times, The Guardian, and Economist. Plus Desmond, Professor of Sociology, Princeton University, will be speaking April 12 at local Family Action Network events with fellow scholars Reuben Jonathan Miller and Alex Kotlowitz. If you cannot make either event, a video recording of the evening session should be posted soon. Desmond's analytical ability and skills as an award-winning author are once again evident as he encourages readers to tackle tough questions, particularly "Why Haven't We Made More Progress?" He is unflinching in his commentary, noting in the prologue that "This is who we are: the richest country on earth, with more poverty that any other advanced democracy," stressing that the United States has more poor people than Australia or Venezuela's entire populations. The statistics are astounding (e.g., more than one million public school children are homeless), but Desmond wants his readers to move beyond looking at the poor, saying "those of us living lives of privilege and plenty must examine ourselves." POVERTY, BY AMERICA received a starred review from Booklist and will be on our shelves soon.

Video recording link: https://www.familyactionnetwork.net/video/

Other reviews:
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/09/magazine/poverty-by-america-matthew-desmond.html
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/mar/22/poverty-by-america-by-matthew-desmond-review-how-the-rich-keep-the-poor-down
https://www.economist.com/culture/2023/03/15/poverty-by-america-is-a-fierce-polemic-on-an-enduring-problem

Matthew Desmond's book Evicted was one of the most impactful and important books I've read in a decade; I've recommended it personally and professionally many times. Evicted was measured and balanced in examining the root causes of home insecurity in America, while still bringing the human stories of eviction to life. Poverty, by America, is a different read: you can feel Desmond's outrage and emotion throughout. I don't know if this makes for stronger arguments (indeed, I felt Evicted to be more detailed and well-researched) but certainly any reader will feel the urgency and necessity in his words. Poverty, by America offers a more global and impassioned argument for eradicating poverty: because "poverty anywhere is a threat to prosperity everywhere."

Small note: Desmond got me energized; I believe in his thesis and wanted to do more when I finished reading. The book could benefit from a list of organizations, ways to help, and next steps.

As always Matthew Desmond really challenges you when you read his work. There is so much wrong with our system. He has a lot of suggestions for ways to work toward a solution, but it is pretty overwhelming. I'm grateful he has written this and wish our legislators would read it and take it to heart. Dion Graham is an outstanding narrator for this material. I appreciate the strength of conviction that he conveys. I am glad to have the print book in order to start a list on what I can do. Like his book Eviction he does a great job of telling stories of individuals as well as a broad overview of our current system.

This book was so well-researched & very thorough!! Desmond debunks many of the false truths we’ve all heard as it relates to poverty & being poor in America. Desmond’s work here is very timely!! Covid-19 was a game changer for many Americans. With the enhanced unemployment benefits received during COVID-19, we all heard complaints that people were “lazy” & didn't want to work. In reality, many Americans were now in a position to demand better wages. Going forward, Desmond’s work here offers many common sense solutions to end poverty in America.

Thank you to NetGalley and Crown Publishing for a copy to review. This is my first read by Matthew Desmond but his second book. Using history and research Desmond sets out to answer the question of why is there poverty by pointing at those who aren't in poverty. A scathing indictment of how those who have will continue to have and those who do not won't-unless we disrupt the system. Definitely difficult to read but left me feeling more hopeful and purposeful.

The good news for Mr. Desmond is that this book will likely divide people along political lines, and progressive people will most likely all give it 5 stars and conservative people will not. And there's nothing really wrong with that, but I did find it sorely disappointing after reading the masterpiece that was [book:Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City|25852784].

[book:Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City|25852784] was a book that opened hearts and minds. I now know that I am not really in the same vicinity as Mr. Desmond when it comes to our political views, but when I read Evicted, I was moved nonetheless. It created an empathy within me that really wasn't there before, and made me more attuned to the issue in my own community. Since I participate very actively in a Giving Circle, there were real ramifications to this viewpoint shift. I thought the book was brilliant even when read with a critical eye.

This book is the exact opposite. It's an editorial where you can't help but feel as though the facts were entirely cherry picked as if to build a legal argument. There was very little nod to other schools of thought, but more importantly there wasn't any analysis of possible unintended consequences that might arise from following Desmond's suggestions for eradicating poverty. There was also no good definition of what eradicating poverty really means. Is it just getting people above a certain minimum income? I definitely got the sense that Desmond didn't see that as adequate. There will always be a bottom 15%. But the people comprising that bottom are not always the same year in and year out.

There were some ideas that I agree with (free access to excellent birth control for those below a certain income level seems like a good idea to me, and I could get on board with eliminating the mortgage interest deduction as part of a bigger plan to simply our tax system). But you lose me when you point out that during the pandemic we made the biggest dent in poverty we ever made because we handed out so much money . . .um, did you measure that in inflation adjusted income? Everything got so much more expensive; I find it hard to take that statement seriously.

At the end of the day, there was an opportunity here. I think it was missed. If you like opinion pieces that go on for the length of an entire book, you might enjoy the writing.

Matthew Desmond does it again! I was entranced by Evicted and just as taken by Poverty, by America. This book is infuriating because it so accurately depicts why poverty exists in our wealthy nation. Pair with The Sum of Us, The People's Hospital, and of course, Evicted.

Evicted was a powerful account of the scam that is the rental industry in America, specifically in poverty-stricken urban areas, so, it's no wonder that Desmond moved up to the larger issue of poverty for his next nonfiction book. He reports on the benefits that the rich accumulate on the backs of the poor in this country and the systems that have been put in place to keep those people below the poverty line. This is a sad but important book that I'm glad to have experienced. *Advance copy provided by the publisher in exchange for my honest review.

This book is as searing as they come. Desmond took his clout as a Pulitzer winner and said I'm coming for your necks. This book is not EVICTED it is not narrative nonfiction, it is a fierce accounting of poverty in America an a poverty abolitionist manifesto. It digs into the tax breaks and welfare of the rich. It is very very good.

Matthew Desmond's latest book leaves no stone unturned on the topic of poverty in America. It's fact-packed and should be a must-read for everyone from policymakers to CEOs and many in between. It made me angry almost from the first page. What are we even doing, America?! If you are looking to research the causes and effects of poverty, this is a great resource. It reads differently than Desmon's previous book, Evicted, in that this is mainly straight nonfiction whereas the former was narrative nonfiction. I didn't find this book as engaging as Evicted, but it's equally important and a good companion to give readers a broad picture of life for millions of Americans.

Thank you to Crown Publishing and NetGalley for a review copy of this book.

“Hungry people want bread. The rich convene a panel of experts. Complexity is the refuge of the powerful.”
Desmond is the author of Evicted, the Pulitzer winning examination of urban homelessness. Desmond himself grew up poor, and his family was forced out of their home when he was a child. These things give him a different and more authoritative perspective than most urban ethnographers.

My thanks go to Net Galley and Crown Publishing for the invitation to read and review. This book is for sale now.

This book is written for a general readership, and it’s more readable than any other nonfiction work I’ve seen on this subject. His tone is conversational, and his research is impeccable, drawing from a wide variety of sources, well integrated and organized. He addresses the past and present roles of racism, explaining how the overtly discriminatory statutes and policies of the past have morphed into more subtly framed, yet still ubiquitous ones of today. He tells us “why there is so much poverty in America and…how to eliminate it.” He speaks to an audience of middle and upper class readers, warning that we must “…each of us, in our own way, [must become] poverty abolitionists, unwinding ourselves from our neighbors’ deprivation and refusing to live as unwitting enemies of the poor.”

In revealing the roots of American poverty, Desmond is thorough. He discusses the role played by medical costs, and the many workers that still cannot afford health care; the withering of unions, and the way that gig workers and independent contractors have replaced permanent employees; incarceration, and the debilitating effects it has, not only on the person sent away, but on their families for generations to come; the way that government assistance programs have been legally diverted to programs having nothing to do with the poor; the way that poor people are forced to pay more for the same goods and services that the better off pay. He discusses the ways that those living in poverty are cut off from political and economic opportunities. He does these things better than anyone else is doing them right now, and it makes me mad as hell, seeing millions of ruined lives all laid out so starkly.

It is when he approaches solutions that things become a little muddy. There are a few of his suggestions that I genuinely disagree with, but most of them are sound; the problem is that, despite his assurance that all of these changes can be made without much incursion into the lives of the wealthy and powerful, the chances of these people agreeing to implement such changes are somewhere between slim and none. He assures us that he is no Marxist (and that’s the truth, alas,) and that the rich can still have plenty; yet in reality, it’s clear to this reviewer that the kinds of changes that are needed are ones that working people will have to force from the tightly closed fists of the rich. This is where the fifth star falls off of my rating.

Nonetheless, Poverty by America is well worth your time and money, and I recommend it to you.

A well-researched introduction to what poverty means in the United States and how it affects everyone, as well as addressing many common misconceptions people have about poverty and welfare. Desmond focuses on many reasons for poverty, such as low wages or inability to find affordable housing, but he also highlights another side, that those who have privilege can help close the gap. Current policies tend to favor the very rich, who pay less in taxes on the whole, or favor those with some wealth, who gain tax breaks on mortgages or employer-provided healthcare, while cutting funding to many needed public welfare projects that would help those most in need. There are ways that everyone can get involved, from smaller things like not buying things from corporations who have a history of banning unions or not paying a fair wage, to bigger things like advocating for inclusionary zoning to help increase affordable housing in all neighborhoods. This book is just the beginning, but it will make people think about the choices they make and how they can be a part of the change to abolish poverty.

A well-rounded look at poverty in America with ending thoughts on what can be done to help. I really connected with "Evicted" by Desmond because of how well we got to know the people in the book. This book looks at poverty at a higher level so overall lacks the personal stories (although a few anecdotes are presented.) There was not much new for me in this book but it was good to see issues that I've read about in different books over the last few years all centralized. The audiobook is read by Dion Graham and he does an excellent job.

Acclaimed Princeton sociologist and bestselling Pulitzer Prize-winning author Matthew Desmond returns following EVICTED (5 stars)—a powerful novel about families struggling with eviction and housing—with his latest, an insightful, timely, and critical follow-up, POVERTY, AMERICA — exploring the high poverty levels of the U.S. and why.

Why is there so much poverty in America? This and more—is why Desmond wrote this book. He wanted a clear and convincing case of why there is so much hardship in this land of abundance.

His conclusion: we could, as a society, alleviate poverty—if only we give up benefitting from poverty ourselves. The exploitation of the poor and powerless.

We are the wealthiest country on earth, with more poverty than any other advanced democracy. Almost one in nine Americans—including one in eight children—live in poverty. More than 38 million people in the U.S. cannot afford basic necessities, and more than 108 million are getting by on $55K or less a year, many stuck between poverty and security.

Over two million Americans do not have running water or a flushable toilet at home. More than a million of our public schoolchildren are homeless, living in motels, cars, shelters, and abandoned buildings. They find their health improves if they arrive in prison, which is sad.

We must understand the nature of poverty by looking beyond the poor. Those of privilege and plenty must examine themselves.

POVERTY, AMERICA —is not a book about poverty, but instead a book about how the other half lives, about how some lives are made small— so that the others may grow. Poverty, By America, shows how the rest of us benefit by keeping others poor.

Desmond answers these questions about Poverty in America in his eye-opening, well-researched, and well-written book. He lays out why and makes a valid case for how to eliminate it. Unfortunately, Poverty in America continues to be a problem because the people who are not in poverty benefit from the situation and continue to do so, and nothing changes. It only becomes worse.

Desmond offers and outlines solutions to help spread America's wealth and make everyone more prosperous. People are exploiting others and may not even be conscious of their behavior.

To eliminate rent-gouging and neglected properties, we need to expand housing opportunities for low-income families. He explains that there is not a single right way but a wrong way: how we are doing it now.

Ending poverty in America will require new policies and renewed political movements. There are real estate, banking, and numerous other factors that contribute to poverty levels.

As Desmond reiterates, it also requires that each of us, in our way, become poverty abolitionists, unwinding ourselves from our neighbors' deprivation and reusing to live as unwitting enemies of the poor.

Well-researched, the authors' notes are plentiful for further reading, study, and discussions. Poverty is our fight, and we must ask community organizations, employers, places of worship, schools, political parties, museums, courts, towns, and families to join.

The lower-income families are locked out of nice safe neighborhoods due to high rents and no or lower credit. From higher interest rates on mortgages that are out of their reach. Desmond's analysis finds that U.S. landlords in poor neighborhoods typically make double the profit of richer ones.

Poor people are also hit with billions in bank overdraft fees yearly, a policy that became more widespread after banking deregulation in the 1980s. I was in banking during this period and saw this firsthand.

Then poor rely on payday-loan and check-cashing companies when the banks fail them with even higher interest rates, while the investors and financial institutions back them earn good money off the venture.

“Anyone who has ever struggled with poverty knows how extremely expensive it is to be poor; and if one is a member of a captive population, economically speaking, one's feet have simply been placed on the treadmill forever.”― James Baldwin, Nobody Knows My Name

We must ask ourselves and our leaders —What are we doing to divest from poverty? Every person, company, and institution has a role in contributing to poverty and a role in eliminating it.

It is about the millions of decisions we make daily when going about our business. Desmond believes we should worry about the systems that keep that person there and us in our comfortable homes.

"The End of Poverty is something to stand for, march for, and sacrifice for."

Poverty is a dream killer and a waste of human potential. We need to end it, and each person must contribute to ending this problem in America. To correct poverty is our fight.

“Poverty isn’t simply the condition of not having enough money,” Desmond writes. “It’s the condition of not having enough choice and being taken advantage of because of that.”

POVERTY ABOLITIONIST: To be a poverty abolitionist means avoiding businesses that don’t treat their workers fairly, among others— even small things that add up to big things if enough people are on board.

Poverty will only be abolished when a mass movement stirs. All of us can learn from, support, and join activities led by those with this knowledge.

Well-researched, thought-provoking, powerful, compelling, and masterfully written —it packs a punch. I highly recommend POVERTY BY AMERICA and EVICTED for every person, family, company, school, court, institution, and government leader. Well done!

Thank you to #Crown #RandomHouse #NetGalley for an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Blog review posted @
JudithDCollins.com
@JudithDCollins | #JDCMustReadBooks
My Rating: 5 Stars
Pub Date: March 21, 2023
March 2023 Must-Read Books
Top Books of 2023

In his latest novel, Matthew Desmond dives into the pervasiveness of poverty in America, examining the causes and realities of why, in America, it is such a uniquely difficult problem.

Desmond opens the novel by noting how simply "poverty" or the "poverty line" is defined, but how in reality, it is a much more complex situation that goes beyond a dollar amount a person makes in a given year. He goes into some of the major reasons poverty is such a prevalent experience in America, detailing the inefficiencies of the federal and state governments in distributing aid and the exorbitantly expensive and unnecessarily complicated healthcare system in the US. He also covers obstructions in place that make poverty ultimately more expensive, like the lack of access to lines of credit for building equity, unnecessary banking and paycheck fees, and the relative expensiveness to healthy food and meals for those who live in poverty. What I found most eye-opening was the reality of how many governmental benefits wealthier individuals in the country receive, not just by way of minimized estate or capital gains taxes, but even in subsidized costs of employer-provided healthcare and retirement plans.

I appreciated how Desmond covered such a difficult subject in an approachable and understandable way that many readers will understand, incorporating a host of facts and figures and observational studies with his own personal experiences and conversations with individuals who have experienced poverty. The final chapter of his novel closes on a call to action - and while some are more feasible to individuals than others, it leaves room for thought on what might otherwise be considered a very black and white topic. While I personally would appreciated additional depth and detail in several of the chapters, I think this novel serves as a fantastic primer on a weighty situation in the US and the world as a whole.

"Know better. Do Better." --Maya Angelou

This book challenged my thinking on poverty. I understood poverty to be a "luck" sort of situation. You were either born into wealth or you were not. You either won the genetic lottery or you didn't. If you found yourself on the losing end, you could always find a way out of poverty through education and hard work. After reading Poverty by America I came to realize that people are "set up" through policies and systems the government has put into place that actually perpetuate generational poverty. I have heard this rhetoric before but sort of turned a deaf ear to it. I also learned that my simple "middle-class" decisions such as where I chose to live, school my children, invest my money, do my banking and business can actually contribute to keeping those living in poverty in their situation. Being an anti-poverty activist requires one to look at where they purchase groceries, where they chose the live, and where they invest their money. Although the author states that this is not easy to do, we are capable of doing it. This book is full of compassion and wisdom. It has given me much to think about and I know it will stay with me, and hopefully help guide my decision making going forward. I wish this book was mandatory reading in upper high school and/or college. This book will likely create some really good discussion, and hopefully out of that discussion will come some much needed change.

Thanks to NetGalley and Crown Publishing for this ARC.

"Poverty, by America" by Matthew Desmond is an educational work explaining why, even though the United States is the wealthiest country in the world, there are still many people living in poverty. It shows why existing policies are failing and suggests possible ways to eradicate poverty for everyone. Though packed with facts, this book is written in an easily accessible and understandable manner; it is not excessively academic and it is not preachy or patronizing. It's a short read, but an important one.

This was a very thought-provoking book and, at times, it was difficult to come to terms with the ways my personal choices continue to keep people in poverty. It was eye opening to see that much of my stability and security is built from the exploitation of the poor. It disproves many long-held beliefs Americans have about the causes of poverty and provides suggestions on how we all can become poverty abolitionists; suggestions that would radically change the lives of millions of Americans, while requiring minimal sacrifice from the rest of us.

This book inspired me to do better and I am going to be more cautious about which businesses I choose to support. I will strive to purchase goods and services from businesses who do not exploit their workers whenever possible, even if it means spending a bit more. I alone can't change the world, but if enough of us do what we can, we can make a real impact.

Many thanks to NetGalley, Crown Publishing Group, and Matthew Desmond for the privilege of reading an advanced digital copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

This book was everything I’d hoped it would be

There’s a lot of information but it’s easy to follow for even those just beginning to look at poverty in America.

The author doesn’t let his whiteness take center stage as he explored and explained the deeper reasonings of poverty in America

I love how he brings up common arguments like personal failures and uses a great amount of evidence to debunk these myths

This was an accessible, engaging, and well-thought-out read on the factors perpetuating American poverty. Desmond backs up his claims with both anecdotal and statistical data outlining how the crisis has deepened over the years, despite having the tools and resources to solve them. His argument about how poverty exists because we allow it to was uncomfortable but necessary. I appreciated that he provided solutions on both a small and large scale. .