Broke in America by Joanne Samuel Goldblum

If you’re looking to make a difference in the landscape of American poverty, Broke In America should be on your reading list. We don’t have to live like this, and myriad suggestions point out how easily (and not so easily) things could change. We choose to allow this we choose to maintain a system set up to sentence people to intense suffering and hideous living conditions. It’s a terrible, vicious cycle, one that is unmistakable throughout every chapter of this book, with example after depressing example and even more disheartening statistics.īut poverty is a choice, the authors argue- not a choice made by the people living it, but a choice we as a society are making. Those who do manage to claw their way out end up nowhere near those who are born into money in terms of assets. The system is stacked against people to move up out of poverty those who come from money are likely stay there, and those who don’t aren’t statistically likely to get ahead. In this well-researched and aptly argued primer on poverty in the United States, authors Goldblum and Shaddox lay out the case for exactly how dire the situation is- bad for some, worse for others (and notably worse for nonwhites in every case). Poverty by Joanne Samuel Goldblum and Colleen Shaddox (BenBella Books, 2021) is an excellent place to start. The myth of working hard in order to better one’s station in life is some Horatio Alger-type nonsense how can you work hard enough when the rent alone is over half of your take-home pay? How is it possible to get ahead when you’re barely keeping up and a blown tire or a minor medical emergency is all it takes to put you behind yet again? Salaries haven’t kept up with increases in cost of living, and if you don’t understand poverty well or have never picked up a book on the subject, Broke in America: Seeing, Understanding, and Ending U.S. Poverty is a special kind of hell, and it takes a special kind of miracle to unearth oneself from its depths.

Broke in America by Joanne Samuel Goldblum