The Most Important Book I Read This Year: “Poverty, By America” by Matthew Desmond
We live in a neoliberal world.
In Thursday’s class, we had a seminar discussion about the concluding chapter of The Politics of Neoliberal Democracy in Africa by Usman Tar. My students said they hated the reading (“Bowling this is dry AF”) but it led to a rich conversation. At one point, a student tossed out that since the collapse of the Soviet Union, there isn’t a credible alternative pathway to neoliberal economics (tax cuts, privatization, deregulation, free trade, etc.,) for developing economies.
They nailed it. As far as most people are concerned, redistributionist ideologies got their run in the twentieth century and they failed. So whether we like it or not, we’re stuck with the Thatcher/Reagan neoliberal consensus until a different economic paradigm comes along. Nowhere is that neoliberal-live-or-die-by-the markets consensus more entrenched and destructive than in the US housing market.
Over the last several years, I have been on a journey when it comes to my thinking about housing policy. I have written, podcasted, and spoken about my evolving views across various channels. I have seen firsthand the impact of housing instability on my students at Lincoln and have sought out alternatives and answers. It’s why I endorsed Tacoma for All’s successful Initiative #1. For my money, among the smartest people in the US on housing is author Matthew Desmond.
Desmond, a sociologist from Princeton, turned me onto the issue of evictions in the US in his Pulitzer Prize-winning book Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City. When I read the book in 2018, it was for a bookclub episode of the podcast. The book had such an impact on me that we recorded a follow-up conversation with Speaker of the House, Laurie Jinkins.
In Evicted, Desmond takes you on a journey into the lives of low-income families in Milwaukee as they navigate eviction and our “housing as a commodity” system. Desmond's stories show how systemic forces trap people in a cycle of eviction, displacement, and hopelessness. In researching the book, Desmond embedded himself with the families at the center of the story, sometimes living with them, experiencing the insults and vicissitudes of life at the bottom end of the rental market.
The most poignant section followed Arleen, a single mother of three living in a dilapidated apartment building. When Arleen fell behind on rent, she was evicted, leaving her family homeless and scrambling to find shelter. Arleen's story was emblematic of the reality faced by millions of low-income Americans, on the edge of poverty and homelessness.
But Desmond's book is not just about the stories of these families; it is also a damning indictment of the American housing system and the extent to which it is rigged against low-income renters and other tenants. Evicted is a powerful and important book. Reading it has driven many of the choices Hope and I make when it comes to our finances.
This year Desmond followed up Evicted with Poverty, By America. This time, he widened his lens beyond housing to explore wage stagnation, soaring wealth inequality, and other permutations of predatory capitalism. Desmond put to bed, once and for all, narratives attributing poverty solely to individual behavior. He also debunked tropes about welfare dependence, noting that similarly wealthy societies with more generous social safety nets have lower, rather than higher, rates of poverty and homelessness. Rather than blaming people for factors beyond their control, he aimed at the societal structures keeping people in poverty and the people who benefit from it, including you and me.
I like a good deal as much as the next guy but the collective, relentless pursuit of low-priced consumer goods has far-reaching consequences, negatively impacting retail workers and individuals in US manufacturing. This pursuit translates into downward pressure on wages and financial hardship for workers. It’s even worse in manufacturing and processing where an emphasis on cost-cutting leads to lower wages, automation, and outsourcing. If you’ve been paying attention over the last few decades none of that is especially revelatory but I appreciated how no one gets off the hook in Desmond’s argument. He situated consumer behavior in concert with predatory capitalism.
Desmond also examined how the structures that perpetuate poverty stem from policies and practices that favor the wealthy:
Where did overdraft fees come from?
Renters almost always lose their security deposit, even if they take good care of the place. Why?
Who collects the 1000% APR consumer on payday loans?
These unfair practices—overdraft fees, security deposit traps, payday loan scams—are legal but how were laws changed that permit them?
At times, taking on the tone of a tent revival preacher, Poverty, By America highlights the need for advocates to rally behind policies that tackle the root causes of poverty. Desmond argues that by acknowledging the systemic nature of poverty, we can embark on dismantling the barriers that impede individuals and communities from flourishing.
Poverty, By America is the most compelling argument for the working poor this side of Das Kapital.
I'd love to hear what books made an impact on you this year. Drop me a line.
Bits and Recommendations for the Week
My wife is currently at a conference in Warsaw and I am left to my own devices. I have taken a couple of long-ish bike rides and as I often do when she's gone I’ve watched a couple of 3-hour plus epic films. In last week’s newsletter, I panned Ridley Scott's Napoleon but offered praise to the director's cut of Kingdom of Heaven. I revisited it on Saturday and it is better than I remembered. Despite an underwhelming performance from a miscast Orlando Bloom, it is genuinely a wonderful piece of cinema (if you’re into loosely historically accurate epics).
Speaking of dated, this week I finished the Netflix series Kleo. It is about an East German assassin who is double-crossed by her handlers and thrown into prison, only to emerge two years later, after the fall of the Berlin Wall. She stumbles into a drastically changed world and her apartment is occupied by someone from the West. The remedy? Revenge, clearing her name, a chase for a MacGuffin-y red suitcase, and lots of killing. Warning: it's best in German with English subtitles because the English dub is quite laughable.
That’s it for now, see you next week!
As always, if you have any thoughts or feedback about the newsletter, I welcome it, and I really appreciate it when folks share Takes & Typos with their friends.
As always, if you have any thoughts or feedback about the newsletter, I welcome it, and I really appreciate it when folks share the newsletter with their friends.