Poverty, By America Chapter 7–Chapter 9 & Epilogue Summary & Analysis

Chapter 7: Invest in Ending Poverty
Chapter 8: Empower the Poor
Chapter 9: Tear Down the Walls
Epilogue

In the final section of the book, Desmond lays out his ideas for ending poverty, beginning with increased and more efficient government investment. Desmond cites the example of COVID-era relief programs, such as increased unemployment benefits and emergency rental assistance, to illustrate the power of government aid. These programs were wildly successful in cutting poverty. Desmond’s analysis also shows that they do not deserve the blame they received for labor shortages, which carried on equally in both states that ended the benefits early and in those that did not. Earlier in the book, Desmond argues that a high proportion of government funds intended to benefit poor people are spent on irrelevant programs, lost to corruption, or stockpiled by states rather than being distributed. Thus, to minimize shrinkage, he also calls for giving more benefits directly to poor people. Perhaps most importantly, he calls for making government aid far easier to access, so that it more easily gets to the people who need it.

To empower the poor, Desmond calls for changes in labor relations, wages, housing policy, and banking. To return to a time when wages paid for the basic necessities of life, Desmond calls for greater support for unions. He notes the promising recent successes of efforts to organize by sector, rather than by employer. For instance, the Fight for $15 campaign organizes workers across the fast-food industry, rather than approaching each restaurant chain separately. This method prevents individual employers from competing in the marketplace by offering lower-cost products at the expense of worker pay. To end the inequities in the unfair and unstable housing market, Desmond advocates for increased and improved public housing and direct government loans to buy housing that conventional banks refuse to mortgage. He also advocates for a broader movement of cooperative housing efforts, citing the example of Minneapolis tenants who successfully banded together to collectively buy the apartment building their landlord was neglecting. To make conventional banking accessible, he recommends an end to overdraft fees and stronger laws to rein in payday lenders.

Read 9 brief Questions & Answers about Poverty, By America.

Desmond decries the idea of false scarcity when he makes his most radical appeal: to economically integrate America’s communities and schools. Research shows that economically integrated schools, where poor children attend the same schools as their wealthy peers, are one of the most dramatically effective anti-poverty interventions. Similarly, while moving to an affluent area does not automatically increase the income of a poor family, it lessens the effect of poverty by making the family less likely to experience the violence, trauma, and environmental risk associated with many low-income areas. However, in a nation where schools are locally funded and affluent people have maintained residential segregation, there is an obvious resistance to sharing the wealth. To combat this, Desmond calls for changes to zoning laws, so that affluent communities can no longer keep poor residents out by preventing the construction of apartment buildings and other forms of less expensive housing. In addition, he calls for government incentives for communities to welcome greater economic diversity. Although he recognizes that the affluent will resist, he counters by reminding readers of the benefits of living in vibrant communities and the fact that there are enough resources to share.

Read about the Main Idea (#1) that poverty in America is not inevitable but calculated to occur.

Desmond estimates it would cost $177 billion to lift every American out of poverty, an amount that is less than one percent of the country’s annual Gross Domestic Product (GDP). He proposes raising this money first by closing the tax loopholes on corporations that cost the country $1 trillion per year. In addition, he advocates for raising the tax rates on the wealthiest Americans to the level that was normal before President Reagan’s massive tax cuts. He calls for individuals to adjust their buying power to reward corporations that pay their workers fair wages, including seeking out union-made products. At the same time, Desmond acknowledges that ending poverty will require some level of sacrifice on the part of affluent Americans beyond the super wealthy. He counters that these sacrifices would be worth it in order to live in a safer, more just, and equitable society. In the book’s epilogue, he returns to his opening call for readers to become “poverty abolitionists,” dedicating their energy and skills to building a movement to advocate for better wages, fairer tax policies, and integrated communities.

Read an important quote about Desmond’s case for how Americans can bring an end to poverty.