The United States has more poverty than any other advanced democracy. Why does this land of plenty allow one in every eight of its children to go without basic necessities, permit scores of its citizens to live and die on the streets, and authorize its corporations to pay poverty wages?  In this book, sociologist Matthew Desmond draws on history, research, and original reporting to show how affluent Americans knowingly and unknowingly keep poor people poor. 

This book has been on my TBR for a while, and it was very fascinating. There is definitely a lot of data that went into the book, and I appreciated how well researched the book was. I really learned a lot about how policies targeted to help the middle and upper classes also are responsible for perpetuating poverty, and that many of our nation’s practices and politics are geared towards keeping the wealthy, wealthy rather than doing anything to alleviate poverty. I also appreciate that Desmond proposed solutions for eliminating poverty, rather providing so much information and then leaving the reader wondering what they can do. Sometimes I got a little bogged down with all of the data and the writing came across as a bit preachy at times. Nonetheless this was definitely a very educational and thought-provoking read.