Book Review/Heather Seggel

The Puzzle of Poverty

In March of 2016 Delaine Eastin spoke at a Women’s History Month event in Northern California; she was hoping to make some history herself by running for governor at the time. Her talk was rousing and turned on an idea she repeated several times: “Budgets are statements of values.” I thought of this while reading “Broke in America: Seeing, Understanding, and Ending US Poverty” (BenBella Books). Authors Joanne Goldblum and Colleen Shaddox examine poverty from multiple angles, and repeatedly note how it’s not only a problem we can afford to solve, it’s one we’re spending more on than is probably required, just not in the right places.

Chapters on hunger, access to water and hygiene supplies, housing, transportation, and more, mix policy analysis with stories from people living through extremely hard times. Interviews are full of tough stories, but the people telling them emphasize that they are not to be pitied. They are strategic thinkers and hard workers, but that’s rarely enough in a system designed to keep wealth flowing upstream. Each chapter ends with a list of ways for a reader to get involved, from working to “ban the box” acknowledging a felony conviction on job applications, to starting or donating to a diaper bank, a seemingly small thing that has enormous impact, enabling parents to place children in day care and thus work longer hours, and keeping their households healthy.

The authors have a talent for upending conventional wisdom that repeatedly surprised me. I’ve long been a fan of my local farmers market’s EBT matching program, where SNAP benefits are doubled up to a certain point, allowing customers to stretch their dollars further. It used to work well for me as a single person living less than five minutes from a small but vigorous market. But the authors note that buying frozen vegetables is just as healthy, more affordable, convenient, and less likely to lead to food waste. Expanding SNAP benefits can help people get and stay healthy in the near term, whereas treating diabetes and heart disease later on will cost millions if not billions more dollars. Whether we also want to support local farmers and try to mitigate climate change by localizing the food supply is a complicated part of that equation, but this was a useful perspective shift.

A similar inversion of priorities happens when poverty and mental illness intersect. A move to bring mental health services to the homeless seems humane and well-intended at first glance, but housing and steady income may well negate the need for such services. Poverty is its own form of trauma; solving that solves a host of other problems before they can take root. The old argument that giving money to people will increase their access to vices doesn’t stand up to scrutiny; substance abuse goes down when people are happy and healthy, and money can help with both those things.

Poverty impacts non-white people in the US more harshly, largely due to our history of racial inequality. “Redlined” neighborhoods are ill-served by public transportation if they’re served at all; riding the bus ends up being stigmatized as a result, and investors prioritize rail that’s less accessible to those who actually need rides. Because public transit in poor areas is often insufficient to get people to and from jobs, unscrupulous lenders step in with car loans that lead to cycles of repossession and resale to the next desperate person. It quickly becomes clear that looting on a grand scale is happening from the top down at all times.

In addition to action lists at the end of chapters, the book’s final section talks more about how to get involved. Goldblum writes briefly about her own experience starting a diaper bank that has grown into a national network; the big impact from that precisely targeted investment offers a clue to how we sometimes aim high and overshoot the problem we’re trying to solve. There are thoughtful suggestions for forming a group to work on some or all of these problems in your community. Reading reminded me of a book I reviewed here last year, “Who Owns Poverty?” The questionnaire in that book, the Poverty Stoplight, gave individuals and families a chance to self-assess and see where their circumstances needed improvement, and, just as important, where they were already doing well. I can’t help thinking that a policy marrying that approach to the one outlined in “Broke in America” could do enormous good for the people who need it most.

Heather Seggel is a writer living in Northern California. Email heatherlseggel@gmail.com.

From The Progressive Populist, May 1, 2021

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