According to the Gospel of St. Mark, Jesus said the poor will always be with us. In “Poverty, by America,” Pulitzer Prize winning author Matthew Desmond disagrees. Poverty is not inevitable, he says. It’s a choice that our nation has made. His new book presents a recipe for another, much more humane choice, that of eradicating poverty entirely.
Desmond’s goal is radical and may seem impractical, but in only 189 pages of text and an additional 74 pages of notes, he lays it all out. First, he sets the scene. Mostly hidden but for the growing presence of panhandlers and homeless camps, poverty is rife in America. One in 18 Americans lives in deep poverty, having incomes less than half of what the government defines as the poverty line, $15,000 a year for a family of four. In raw numbers that’s roughly 18 million people, more than half of them children. Ranked internationally, the United States is breathtakingly exceptional. Measured against 25 other western countries, the percentage by which poor Americans’ income is below the poverty line exceeds 24 of them (ConfrontingPoverty.org). By all other depth-of-poverty-measures, we rank a proud first.
How could this be in a country so rich? Desmond’s answers have few surprises. We already know their broad outlines. Since the 1970s, labor unions have been substantially weakened. The gig economy deliberately exploits workers. Our laws allow and even encourage exploitation of the poor in many other ways. Bank fees and usurious payday loan interest charges disproportionately affect the poor. Each year, the lack of available, affordable housing forces a greater percentage of Americans out of homes and into rentals or into tents or cars or even onto the street. Above all, our tax policies accelerate the widening gap between rich and poor.
While hardly new, some details of how tax policies ensure millions will remain mired in poverty are startling enough to open even eyes squeezed tightly shut. Who benefits more from the vast American welfare apparatus? From SNAP, from Medicaid, from the Earned Income Tax Credit, from other tax credits and deductions like those for mortgage interest, 529 education plans, subsidized student loans and employer-provided medical insurance? Added together, in Desmond’s words, “the biggest beneficiaries of federal aid are affluent families,” with the richest families receiving almost 40% more in government subsidies than the poorest.
But what about the fact that the rich pay more in taxes? Of course, they do; they have the money. But when all taxes are considered, “poor and middle-class Americans dedicate approximately 25% of their income to taxes, while rich families are taxed at an effective rate of 28% (and) the four hundred richest Americans are taxed at 23%, the lowest rate of all.”
Though his short book is packed with numbers, Desmond does not spend all his time in his Princeton University office poring over statistics. “Poverty, by America” is leavened with stories of the poor people he’s met, talked to, and lived with, who are trapped in the toils of the poverty America has arranged for them. A quiet outrage permeates Desmond’s account of the millions of our fellow citizens penned in by walls of greed, race, class, and indifference too high to climb. It is hard to imagine that any reader of this book would not feel the same.
Following Desmond’s recipe for eliminating poverty will take a heap of commitment from all of us. Among other actions, it would require us to recognize that most of the country derives its comfort from exploiting the poor. That the affluent give up some of their subsidies. That we recalibrate our tax system to make it truly progressive. That we rewrite zoning laws to encourage a blend of race and class to live in the same areas. That our personal spending be deliberately directed at discouraging individual and corporate greed.
“Poverty, by America” provides the recipe for putting the deep shame of poverty behind us. Desmond stirs its ingredients with his outrage. The only thing that may be missing from his recipe is enough of ours.
“Poverty, by America,” by Matthew Desmond (Crown: 2023. 284 pages)
Ken Winkes is a retired teacher and high school principal, who grew up in northwest Washington State, attended college in California during the 1960s and now lives near the Skagit River about 18 miles from his hometown.
From The Progressive Populist, August 1, 2023
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