Poverty, by America

By: Matthew Desmond

Narrated by: Dion Graham

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Evicted reimagines the debate on poverty, making a “provocative and compelling” (NPR) argument about why it persists in America: because the rest of us benefit from it.

A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: The New Yorker, The New York Times Book Review, NPR, Oprah Daily, Time, The Star Tribune, Vulture, The Christian Science Monitor, Chicago Public Library, Esquire, California Review of Books, She Reads, Library Journal

“Urgent and accessible . . . Its moral force is a gut punch.”—The New Yorker

Longlisted for the Inc. Non-Obvious Book Award • Longlisted for the Andrew Carnegie Medal

The United States, the richest country on earth, has more poverty than any other advanced democracy. Why? Why does this land of plenty allow one in every eight of its children to go without basic necessities, permit scores of its citizens to live and die on the streets, and authorize its corporations to pay poverty wages?

In this landmark book, acclaimed sociologist Matthew Desmond draws on history, research, and original reporting to show how affluent Americans knowingly and unknowingly keep poor people poor. Those of us who are financially secure exploit the poor, driving down their wages while forcing them to overpay for housing and access to cash and credit. We prioritize the subsidization of our wealth over the alleviation of poverty, designing a welfare state that gives the most to those who need the least. And we stockpile opportunity in exclusive communities, creating zones of concentrated riches alongside those of concentrated despair. Some lives are made small so that others may grow.

Elegantly written and fiercely argued, this compassionate book gives us new ways of thinking about a morally urgent problem. It also helps us imagine solutions. Desmond builds a startlingly original and ambitious case for ending poverty. He calls on us all to become poverty abolitionists, engaged in a politics of collective belonging to usher in a new age of shared prosperity and, at last, true freedom.

Excellent and informative

Excellent book about how to fight poverty in the United States. His arguments are very pursuasive.

Essential Information and Possible Solutions

Very important information that all of us need to know. Yes, some of the information/statistics he cites are old, but there is plenty of new information.
His comments/statistics about the effects of the government's "economic impact payments" during COVID are amazing.
I like his approach of asking who benefits from the poor and keeping them poor, instead of derogatory comments about the poor.

Even though his solutions aren't "pie in the sky," there will be stiff opposition from the rich.

An excellent case for Economic Policy Change!

In this book Desmond makes an excellent case for the ways affluent (White)Americans have built Walls of Exclusion to protect their ability to exploit the Poor and in many ways force them to pay to maintain their own Poverty.

He makes it clear that Poverty is not a choice for the Poor and lays out reasonable changes to Tax Policy that would make a significant dent in the unforgivable Inequality extant in America today.

Equality of Opportunity brings Freedom. We could make it happen if only we tried. Five Stars *****

Great read

Great book with inspiring call to action. I am seeking how I can start my journey as a poverty abolitionist.

What a performance by Dion Graham!

Some of the themes and data points are rehashed from Desmond’s previous book, Evicted, but wow what a performance by Graham. By the end of the book, I felt a true call to arms thanks to his tone and inflection throughout the reading. Highly recommend.