Poverty, By America by Matthew Desmond, A Book Review: Why Does the Land of Plenty Allow People to Go Without Basic Necessities?

“We imagine that their sufferings are one thing and our life another.” – Leo Tolstoy

Did you know one out of eighteen people in the United States lives in deep poverty? Did you also know there is no metro area in the same country in which white people experience lower levels of poverty than black or brown people?

Shocking, isn’t it?

These are alarming statistics, and in a country that claims to provide opportunity and upward mobility for all, this should not be the case. These numbers will become worse now that the Trump Administration has passed the spending and policy bill, or, as Trump named it, the Big Beautiful Bill. This bill will cut Medicaid and increase healthcare and food costs, thereby putting millions of people already struggling in further jeopardy. His bill is nothing close to beautiful.

Matthew Desmond in Poverty by America examines why poverty exists and why progress to end it is slow. He summarizes how workers are purposely undercut, how we force the poor to pay more, thereby making it harder to rise above their predicament. He talks about discrimination and segregation and how these contribute to poverty. He implores that government bureaucracy make it difficult for aid to reach the poor. Desmond explains how landlords and banks exploit low-income people, and more. This book is well documented, and it argues that poverty in the richest country on Earth is purposely created. In conclusion, the author gives us six things we can do to help end poverty.

I found Poverty by America unnerving, and at times, shocking to read. As a product of a working-class family who struggled to make ends meet, I not only resonated with Desmond’s analysis but found myself grateful for the sacrifice my parents made. Since my parents invested in a house in a white, upper-middle-class neighborhood and sent me to excellent private schools from kindergarten to high school, I am part of the middle class today. I honestly don’t know where I would be if they had not done those two things. If you read this book, you will understand why.

No one should ever live in poverty, especially in a country that claims to be the richest in the world. I highly recommend Poverty by America by Matthew Desmond to students of sociology, economics, or public policy, and anyone interested in understanding why poverty continues to be a major problem in the United States.

A bit about the author, Matthew Desmond:

Matthew Desmond is a brilliant sociologist and author of three other books in addition to Poverty by America. His book Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City (2016) won the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Critics Circle Award, the Carnegie Medal, and the PEN / John Kenneth Galbraith Award for Nonfiction. He is also a contributing writer for The New York Times Magazine, a recipient of a MacArthur “Genius” Fellowship, the American Bar Association’s Silver Gavel Award, and the William Julius Wilson Early Career Award.

As a contributing writer for The New York Times Magazine, Desmond was listed in 2016 among the Politico 50, one of fifty people across the country who are most influencing the national political debate. He teaches at Princeton University.

If you are interested in the fight to end poverty in the United States, consider becoming a poverty abolitionist. Download Matthew Desmond’s resource here.

To learn more about Matthew Desmond or to read Poverty by America, visit his website, MichaelDesmondBooks.com. Dr. Desmond’s website contains resources to learn about the poverty rates in your state, how to find organizations working to change public policy to end poverty, and even a book review guide for book clubs.