The Radical Child

Poverty, by America by Matthew Desmond
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

After I graduated college, I constantly found myself stuck between a financial rock and a hard place. While I had numerous certifications and degrees and would receive more of the former in the future, working unleashed complications with my Social Security benefits to the point where I didn't work for several years. After reentering the workforce for a few more years, I ultimately got the shock that the government was terminating my disability benefits on account of me no longer being "disabled" despite autism being a lifelong condition that never fades, along with other disabilities like arthritis, epilepsy, mental illness, and possible neuropathy that impede my ability to work traditional part-time or full-time jobs.

I'm not normally a fan of nonfiction, especially the political hagiographies and hatchet jobs (with many in the genre often being hybrids of both), but I've been trying to broaden my literary and mental horizons lately and discovered this book through pure coincidence. Given its apolitical description, I gave it a purchase and read, and while it's not 100% perfect, I was definitely not disappointed. The prologue notes that even though America is the richest country in the world, it also has among the most problems of the wealthiest nations, among them being the titular issue of poverty.

The first chapter touches upon the problem of rising rent rates, noting that official poverty rates exclude the incarcerated, and introducing me to the Marxist term lumpenproletariat, referring to unorganized and unpolitical lower orders of society uninterested in revolutionary advancement, which fascinated me given my open-mindedness to socialist ideology. The second indicates that while money earmarked for the poor has actually increased between the Reagan and Trump Administrations, little of it actually reaches them, given waste at the state level, which is very much an issue as it is at the federal level.

The third chapter notes that America has the lowest wages of the industrialized world, irrelevant in spite of education, with wage negotiation between employees and companies being taboo, and corporate greed rampant. The next touches upon how landlords are more prosperous in low-income neighborhoods because expenses are lower, and how poverty isn't simply the condition of not having enough money but rather not having enough choice and being used as a result. Afterward, Desmond indicates that despite usual rightist fears of welfare leeches, those receiving government assistance actually use more of said money on necessities rather than wants. He concludes the respective chapter by saying that Americans who least need it receive the most federal aid.

The author primarily faults President Reagan's tax cuts for the modern American lopsidedness of wealth and lower investment in public programs but seemed to blame them solely for the budget deficits of the 1980s, when in reality there were other factors like a great increase in military spending, alongside the president's genuine concern in balancing the federal budget through the oft-rejected Balanced Budget Amendment to the US Constitution. However, he does rightfully mention the segregation of housing types (whereas in other nations like Germany, they coexist) and continued political polarization of races in the United States.

Desmond indicates that the government could easily end poverty without increasing the federal deficit by tracking down tax cheaters, which the Internal Revenue Service allegedly cannot do because of understaffing. However, he doesn't mention that the IRS, since its establishment, has been weaponized by all presidential administrations against constructive critics of whoever was president at the time. Furthermore, while he does reasonably suggest that companies should pay employees living wages, he is morally oblivious on the issue of reproduction, which is somewhat sensitive to me as a member of a eugenically "inferior" population.

The final chapter suggests that moving poor families to high-opportunity neighborhoods could easily improve their lives. He then states that President Nixon's Secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, George Romney (father of Utah Senator Mitt), wanted the government to stop subsidizing segregation, which irked Nixon given its opposition from white suburbanites. The chapter ends with mention of a poll saying that while a record-high number of Americans are satisfied with their financial situations, a record low are "very happy." The epilogue's main message is that poverty in America will only end when a mass movement demands it.

Overall, Desmond's book is definitely a must-read by any American with a passing interest in politics (and given the very critical political climate of America today, they should have at least some), since it makes incredibly enlightening revelations regarding the inconsistency of wealth in the United States and equally implicates politicians of both sides. However, he does neglect to mention the country's neverending hemorrhage of taxpayer money on the military and overseas conflicts that don't even involve America that could more easily go to use at home. In the end, Americans definitely need to overcome the Stockholm syndrome they have with their elected officials and very vocally demand genuine change and progress, so that their country doesn't fall into the ashcan of history.

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