The Chris Hedges Report Podcast with Matthew Desmond, author of "Poverty, by America," on how our epidemic of poverty is not an accident, but is by design.
The Chris Hedges Report Podcast with Matthew Desmond, author of "Poverty, by America," on how our epidemic of poverty is not an accident, but is by design.
Listen now (31 min) | According to the Center on Poverty and Social Policy at Columbia University, 14.3 percent of Americans — nearly 50 million people — were living in poverty in December. “If America’s poor founded a country,” Matt Desmond writes in his book “Poverty, By America,” “that country would have a bigger population than Australia or Venezuela. Almost one in nine Americans – including one in eight children – live in poverty. There are more than 38 million people living in the United States who cannot afford basic necessities, and more than 108 million getting by on $55,000 a year or less, many stuck in that space between poverty and security. More than a million of our public schoolchildren are homeless, living in motels, cars, shelters, and abandoned buildings.” More than 2 million American’s don’t have running water or a flushing toilet at home.” These statistics are bad enough, but when seen through the lens of institutionalized racism they are even worse. In 2019, the median white household has a net worth of $188,200, compared with $24,100 for the median Black household. And yet as Desmond writes, “spending on the nation’s thirteen largest means-tested programs – aid reserved for Americans who fall below a certain income level – went from $1,015 a person the year Ronald Regan was elected president to $3,419 a person one year into Donald Trumps’ administration. That’s a 237 percent increase.” Why does poverty on this scale exist given our affluence? Desmond argues that poverty in America is not an accident. It is by design. The majority of Americans, he writes, benefit from a system that callously exploits the poor. Joining me to discuss his book “Poverty, By America” is Matthew Desmond, professor of sociology at Princeton University.
A Canadian, I just left Cleveland after a couple days. What a shit hole. Aren’t you Americans embarrassed, I would be.
Hoards of hollowed out people - mostly black - milling about downtown. I gave a 20 to the ones who asked. Lots of god love you and you’re blessed comments.
Really what happened? You left liberals have been in power for a long time and you are failing; failing rather comprehensively by the look of things.
In Toronto we have homeless but it seems different, people of all colours for one thing. I think in Canada we turned the mentally unstable out, out of institutions and on to the streets. Cleveland felt different, I drove miles on city streets, it’s a derelict place with zombies everywhere.
The left liberals were replaced by Reagan democrats in the mid 1980s. Don't blame us for this freaking mess. The right wing has stolen over 100 trillion dollars with free trade, electrical down, immigration, capitalist healthcare, offshore banking, unfunded wars, corporate welfare, bank bailouts, interest on the national debt,. And wasted this time military spending. Now the right wants to put their big boy pants on and have a dictatorship, their certifiably insane!
Interesting argument. Somehow I agree with you that it’s the right, yet think the left is also to blame.
I actually regretted writing left liberal. It’s a culture war prompt.
What I meant was that social sciences (leftist) were thought to be the answer and their prescriptions led to this mess. I don’t know why we let all the mentally deranged people out of asylums in Canada. I don’t think we did them a favor. And they are making one hell of a mess on our city streets. That may sound cold and crass but simply put some people can’t function on their own and sending them out to malfunction in our cities is stupid. Letting people do drugs openly is also stupid, in this regard it seems like the left is screwing up .
That said your argument about the right wing being greedy bastards is very true. I guess I hate everyone.
The people I saw in Cleveland just appeared bereft: Black men, 95%. The one black woman I gave a 20 became very teary, so I gave her a second one, she shouted something crazy, with lots of spittle, she was filthy head to toe. Turns out I’m no mother Teresa, the whole thing really startled me, the look in her eyes was terrifying.
When Ronald Reagan was governor of California, he was a strong right winger, he closed most if not all of the mental institutions, that is where the insanity first came from in America. Apparently, someone in Canada took notes. Us greedy Americans lead the way in being degenerated since the mid-1980s at least. The left quit having too many babies because we didn't want to overpopulate and over pollute the planet. In 1968 a book by Paul Ehrlich, (The population bomb) predicted this. The author, last I heard was still alive and a professor at Stanford University. The rich capitalists, have been using population growth to grow the economy and to get rich off of dictatorship third world labor. The shipping of jobs to China and importation of jobs from third world Nations has helped make the greedy tyrants billionaires. The right have no solutions to raise the standard of living on Earth, all they do is, it rhymes with (which which witch!). Now they want Total control. They don't even know what the purpose of government is or what the purpose of a man is or the purpose of a woman is, or the purpose of the Constitution is, or the law is. It is like a bunch of criminals in charge of the bank. Our fellow countrymen have degenerated soo far. There are far too many delusional liars in America nowadays! The rich right wingers own the airwaves, especially the AM hate radio stations and they have the not too bright, totally brainwashed.
I don't believe social sciences is leftist or rightist. Their function is to analyze the society and is up to us to draw conclusion on those studies.
I'm sure you are familiar with Helen Keller which in adulthood became a communist when traveled our country and, like yourself, was surprised by the poverty she found as she said that she couldn't see it but smell it. This was her conclusion:
"I had once believed that we were all masters of our fate—that we could mold our lives into any form we pleased. . . . I had overcome deafness and blindness sufficiently to be happy, and I supposed that anyone could come out victorious if he threw himself valiantly into life’s struggle. But as I went more and more about the country I learned that I had spoken with assurance on a subject I knew little about. . . . I learned that the power to rise in the world is not within the reach of everyone. —HELEN KELLER"
That is, an unjust system of government doesn't allow poor people to progress.
We don't need Mother Teresas what we need is to vanquish this predatory capitalism.
I'm an American living in Australia and Aussies have such a better deal! Forget right or left.
-Just provide M4A (tax paid "free" health care)
-a living wage (Aussies National Minimum Wage is $23.23 per hour, with 4 weeks paid vacation a year ),
- Affordable education with interest free govt student loans (as is done here).
In Australia we put our mentally ill into the hospital until they are well, and we give them housing. No property tax. Wish Americans had all these things!
The number one solution in America would be a $23.23 an hour minimum wage. That would fix so many lives. But it would also invalidate and obsolete a gigantic industry; a veritable army of people are employed administering social programs and they would no longer be needed. Good luck accomplishing that - getting rid of the good people who work in the caring industries - they would go berserk.
We have educated millions in social work, and we would be effectively saying that they are of no value: which is true. To paraphrase Curtis Yarvin, “the selective advantage of dominant ideas and the concomitant inability of recessive ideas to compete is the mechanism of all human organizations.” This is the dynamic that causes the cathedral to be a feted sewer. It is our fate; we are fated to be stupid; Ideas are distorted by practical considerations and ambition.
But maybe nobody actually wants to fix these problems. Maybe welfare programs are designed for the welfare of those people administering them. Maybe the goal isn’t fixing poverty - that would put them out of work - the goal is just keeping yourself employed. Hum?
The right are greedy bastards : no doubt. But the left, the Philistine left is the core of the problem. They’ve been in charge for 70 years now and they have failed. Their prescriptions are wrong.
It is easier to control poor people struggling to survive. From the elite's perspective, why make things harder for themselves?
In the 60s, education in State Universities was free, or almost free. This led to increased social protest against the Vietnam War especially, but also politicians. Nixon resigned, LBJ retired. Not a good look for the ruling class...and it is a class.
I just finished writing a review of this book for California Review of Books. Should post in a day or so at calirb.com. It's a powerful work that asks us to imagine a society where exploitation is the exception, not the rule.
It is always cheaper to serve good than it is evil, truth rather than lies. The rich capitalist, have stolen over a hundred trillion dollars from the poor and the middle class the last 60 years. With free trade, union busting immigration, the trickle down, capitalist healthcare, unfunded wars, interest on the national debt, bank bailouts, corporate welfare and much more. Impoverishing the poor causes financial insecurity which causes mental health problems which end up drug addiction and criminal activity problems. There are several ways to fix this problem, one way is the tax the rich 90% and the other way is to install a maximum wage about 10 times the minimum wage, something like Plato advocated 450 BC. Our great right wing unlimited greed supporting oligarch class calls anyone who wants to make reforms communist. When communism has been dead for many decades. The idea of everyone making the same amount of money is insane. The rich will do everything they can to keep from paying the poor a living way so they can hoard the moneyunder their pillows or buy up more real estate and create more homeless, just for kicks. Now they want a dictatorship to protect all their stolen wealth. It is cheaper to raise a productive human being then an insane psychotic non-contributor and a taker to society.
What’s new about this? There has always been a poor underclass in the US. Travelling in the US years ago the amount of beggars was staggering. And now there are 85,000 missing children.
Recently read both “Poverty, by America”and “Evicted” both were engaging and informative reads, highly recommended
Yes! and with the massive property buying spree of the corporations homelessness will become increasingly common.
A Canadian, I just left Cleveland after a couple days. What a shit hole. Aren’t you Americans embarrassed, I would be.
Hoards of hollowed out people - mostly black - milling about downtown. I gave a 20 to the ones who asked. Lots of god love you and you’re blessed comments.
Really what happened? You left liberals have been in power for a long time and you are failing; failing rather comprehensively by the look of things.
In Toronto we have homeless but it seems different, people of all colours for one thing. I think in Canada we turned the mentally unstable out, out of institutions and on to the streets. Cleveland felt different, I drove miles on city streets, it’s a derelict place with zombies everywhere.
The left liberals were replaced by Reagan democrats in the mid 1980s. Don't blame us for this freaking mess. The right wing has stolen over 100 trillion dollars with free trade, electrical down, immigration, capitalist healthcare, offshore banking, unfunded wars, corporate welfare, bank bailouts, interest on the national debt,. And wasted this time military spending. Now the right wants to put their big boy pants on and have a dictatorship, their certifiably insane!
Trickle down, not electrical down. Wasted military spending!
Interesting argument. Somehow I agree with you that it’s the right, yet think the left is also to blame.
I actually regretted writing left liberal. It’s a culture war prompt.
What I meant was that social sciences (leftist) were thought to be the answer and their prescriptions led to this mess. I don’t know why we let all the mentally deranged people out of asylums in Canada. I don’t think we did them a favor. And they are making one hell of a mess on our city streets. That may sound cold and crass but simply put some people can’t function on their own and sending them out to malfunction in our cities is stupid. Letting people do drugs openly is also stupid, in this regard it seems like the left is screwing up .
That said your argument about the right wing being greedy bastards is very true. I guess I hate everyone.
The people I saw in Cleveland just appeared bereft: Black men, 95%. The one black woman I gave a 20 became very teary, so I gave her a second one, she shouted something crazy, with lots of spittle, she was filthy head to toe. Turns out I’m no mother Teresa, the whole thing really startled me, the look in her eyes was terrifying.
When Ronald Reagan was governor of California, he was a strong right winger, he closed most if not all of the mental institutions, that is where the insanity first came from in America. Apparently, someone in Canada took notes. Us greedy Americans lead the way in being degenerated since the mid-1980s at least. The left quit having too many babies because we didn't want to overpopulate and over pollute the planet. In 1968 a book by Paul Ehrlich, (The population bomb) predicted this. The author, last I heard was still alive and a professor at Stanford University. The rich capitalists, have been using population growth to grow the economy and to get rich off of dictatorship third world labor. The shipping of jobs to China and importation of jobs from third world Nations has helped make the greedy tyrants billionaires. The right have no solutions to raise the standard of living on Earth, all they do is, it rhymes with (which which witch!). Now they want Total control. They don't even know what the purpose of government is or what the purpose of a man is or the purpose of a woman is, or the purpose of the Constitution is, or the law is. It is like a bunch of criminals in charge of the bank. Our fellow countrymen have degenerated soo far. There are far too many delusional liars in America nowadays! The rich right wingers own the airwaves, especially the AM hate radio stations and they have the not too bright, totally brainwashed.
I don't believe social sciences is leftist or rightist. Their function is to analyze the society and is up to us to draw conclusion on those studies.
I'm sure you are familiar with Helen Keller which in adulthood became a communist when traveled our country and, like yourself, was surprised by the poverty she found as she said that she couldn't see it but smell it. This was her conclusion:
"I had once believed that we were all masters of our fate—that we could mold our lives into any form we pleased. . . . I had overcome deafness and blindness sufficiently to be happy, and I supposed that anyone could come out victorious if he threw himself valiantly into life’s struggle. But as I went more and more about the country I learned that I had spoken with assurance on a subject I knew little about. . . . I learned that the power to rise in the world is not within the reach of everyone. —HELEN KELLER"
That is, an unjust system of government doesn't allow poor people to progress.
We don't need Mother Teresas what we need is to vanquish this predatory capitalism.
Reagan's trickle down economy was in effect a trickle up of our taxes to the rich.
I hear ya, Diamon Boy!
I'm an American living in Australia and Aussies have such a better deal! Forget right or left.
-Just provide M4A (tax paid "free" health care)
-a living wage (Aussies National Minimum Wage is $23.23 per hour, with 4 weeks paid vacation a year ),
- Affordable education with interest free govt student loans (as is done here).
In Australia we put our mentally ill into the hospital until they are well, and we give them housing. No property tax. Wish Americans had all these things!
The number one solution in America would be a $23.23 an hour minimum wage. That would fix so many lives. But it would also invalidate and obsolete a gigantic industry; a veritable army of people are employed administering social programs and they would no longer be needed. Good luck accomplishing that - getting rid of the good people who work in the caring industries - they would go berserk.
We have educated millions in social work, and we would be effectively saying that they are of no value: which is true. To paraphrase Curtis Yarvin, “the selective advantage of dominant ideas and the concomitant inability of recessive ideas to compete is the mechanism of all human organizations.” This is the dynamic that causes the cathedral to be a feted sewer. It is our fate; we are fated to be stupid; Ideas are distorted by practical considerations and ambition.
But maybe nobody actually wants to fix these problems. Maybe welfare programs are designed for the welfare of those people administering them. Maybe the goal isn’t fixing poverty - that would put them out of work - the goal is just keeping yourself employed. Hum?
The right are greedy bastards : no doubt. But the left, the Philistine left is the core of the problem. They’ve been in charge for 70 years now and they have failed. Their prescriptions are wrong.
It is easier to control poor people struggling to survive. From the elite's perspective, why make things harder for themselves?
In the 60s, education in State Universities was free, or almost free. This led to increased social protest against the Vietnam War especially, but also politicians. Nixon resigned, LBJ retired. Not a good look for the ruling class...and it is a class.
I just finished writing a review of this book for California Review of Books. Should post in a day or so at calirb.com. It's a powerful work that asks us to imagine a society where exploitation is the exception, not the rule.
It is always cheaper to serve good than it is evil, truth rather than lies. The rich capitalist, have stolen over a hundred trillion dollars from the poor and the middle class the last 60 years. With free trade, union busting immigration, the trickle down, capitalist healthcare, unfunded wars, interest on the national debt, bank bailouts, corporate welfare and much more. Impoverishing the poor causes financial insecurity which causes mental health problems which end up drug addiction and criminal activity problems. There are several ways to fix this problem, one way is the tax the rich 90% and the other way is to install a maximum wage about 10 times the minimum wage, something like Plato advocated 450 BC. Our great right wing unlimited greed supporting oligarch class calls anyone who wants to make reforms communist. When communism has been dead for many decades. The idea of everyone making the same amount of money is insane. The rich will do everything they can to keep from paying the poor a living way so they can hoard the moneyunder their pillows or buy up more real estate and create more homeless, just for kicks. Now they want a dictatorship to protect all their stolen wealth. It is cheaper to raise a productive human being then an insane psychotic non-contributor and a taker to society.
This also leads to Fascism too. We need a revolution.
Very excited to read both books! Thanks, Chris.
What’s new about this? There has always been a poor underclass in the US. Travelling in the US years ago the amount of beggars was staggering. And now there are 85,000 missing children.
Just pointing out misspelling of Reagan as Regan.