What I learned from Poverty, By America

The Book #

Title: Poverty, By America
Author: Matthew Desmond
Summary: What is a core problem with how we envision the United States?

Ten Things to Know About American Poverty #

• Today the wealth gap between Black and white families is as large as it was in the 1960s
• In 2019 the median white household had a net worth of 188K, compared with 24K for the median Black household
• Studies have shown that Black jobseekers are just as likely to face discrimination in the labor market today as they were thirty years ago. There has been no progress in a generation
• Poverty diminishes life and personhood: it shrinks the mental energy you can dedicate to decisions. Have you ever sat in a hospital waiting room? It's like that.
• Poverty is embarrassing. When politicians propose antipoverty legislation, they have to wrap it in "helping the middle class", "working people", "families". Why?
• Poverty measurements exclude all the people in prison. That's a vast population who spend some of their best years making 0.14 to 1.41 dollars per hour
• Wages are now wobbly, fluctuating wildly month to mongh. America has welcomed the rise of bad jobs at the bottom of the market, jobs offering low pay, no benefits, few guarantees. These jobs are in hospitals, insurance companies, universities.
• Poverty is cumulative. The knock on effects: chronic pain -> incarceration -> depression -> addiction -> ...
• Evicted people are denied low cost suburban housing. Their rent can take 70% of their income.

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