Tag: poverty

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Latest Read: Poverty, by America

Poverty, by America by Matthew Desmond. Matthew is a sociologist at Princeton University. He is also the principal investigator of the Eviction Lab.

Poverty, by America by Matthew Desmond

Matthew’s first book Evicted was the 2017 Pulitzer Prize winner. In addition, Time Magazine named Evicted one of the ten best nonfiction books of the decade. So, can lightning strike twice?

Matthew’s follow up book just might as he provides fresh insights into how society actually thinks about a morally urgent issue. Yet, he is also indicating solutions are available without raising taxes.

This is not about the war on poverty or welfare reform, but simply a book addressing how poverty somehow persists in the richest nation on earth. Long story short: because the rest of us benefit from it.

Matthew’s insights are data driven and so he asks why. Why are 1 in every 8 children in fact going without basic necessities, why are citizens homeless, and why can corporations pay poverty wages? In addition, Matthew is providing updated statistics the really resonate in a post COVID-19 world.

In fact, throughout our history, the US Congress has raised the minimum wage 22 times. The current level — $7.25 an hour was established in 2009. Wow that was 14 years ago.

There are certainly key factors that perpetuate poverty and economic disparity. Matthew points out how the government gives so many benefits and subsidies to the wealthy. This directly undermines the poor.

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Education Milwaukee Reading

Latest Read: Race for Profit

Race for Profit: How Banks and the Real Estate Industry Undermined Black Homeownership by Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor. Dr. Taylor is a professor of African American Studies at Princeton University.

Race for Profit: How Banks and the Real Estate Industry Undermined Black Homeownership by Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor

Her 2013 PhD dissertation in African-American Studies from Northwestern is titled Race for Profit: Black Housing and the Urban Crisis in the 1970s which moreover serves as the core of this book.

As a result of reading Evicted by Matthew Desmond, Keeanga’s book offers very powerful insights to housing in society from the Housing and Urban Development Act (HUD) of 1968 under the Johnson Administration to the 1974 Ford Administration Housing and Community Development Act which created uneven block grants and shared revenue with federal oversight to social welfare.

However, in contrast to Evicted, Race for Profit reveals deep, historical racism within the housing market that continues today and certainly accelerated under COVID. These forces obviously created downstream impacts at state and local levels, along with private financial firms including banks and real estate.

Keeanga in fact documents those failings were simply accelerating via “public/private partnerships” by Real Estate and Banking firms. This provided another opportunity to fleece poor African American women.

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Education Milwaukee Reading

Latest Read: Evicted

Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City by Matthew Desmond. Matthew is a sociologist at Princeton University. He is also the principal investigator of the Eviction Lab.

Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City

Evicted was the 2017 winner of the Pulitzer Prize, In addition, Time Magazine named Evicted one of the ten best nonfiction books of the decade.

Matthew follows eight families across greater Milwaukee who indeed are struggling to live in apartments. For many readers, Evicted should dramatically change our country’s limited understanding of real poverty, impacting both Caucasian and African American families. One can only imagine the acceleration of evictions since COVID derailed the economy.

It is certainly remarkable to be living in Milwaukee and being able to see the apartments around the greater Milwaukee area in person on trips. Some small cities outside Milwaukee including Cudahy are also written into family stories.

Furthermore, Matthew documents that a common notion is that rent should equate to 30 percent of income. However multiple stories of families reveal they are spending up to 80 percent of income on rent. This certainly leaves so many with almost no money for food, clothing, or basic amenities.

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Freakonomics the movie

The movie everyone should have been waiting to see….on your computer before at the cinemas.

In an unusual move Freakonomics the Movie is coming to iTunes first on September 3rd and then to a theater on October 1.
Since I read this book (review)

Tags: SUPERFreakonomics, Stephen Dubner, Steven Levitt, Economics, datasets, innovation, energy, population, poverty, technology, Sudir Venkatesh, terrorist, trends

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Design Education Innovation Reading Technology

Latest read: Superfreakonomics

Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner have released SuperFreakonomics: Global Cooling, Patriotic Prostitutes, and Why Suicide Bombers Should Buy Life Insurance a long awaited follow up to their hit Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything.
If you enjoyed Freakonomics (my review here) or even Sudir Venkatesh‘s Gang Leader for a Day: A Rogue Sociologist Takes to the Streets, the runaway hit from chapter three, then you will enjoy SuperFreakonomics.

I recall learning the book would be released in late 2009 but as soon as I saw it on the shelf I picked up a copy and began reading that night.  They have done another great job exploring new datasets.  Most readers will enjoy reading the data underlying a murder in New York of a woman in-front of 38 witnesses. Nobody called the police for help.  They explore what this says about society.  The book is more of the same: exploring the hidden side of everything.

From comparing street prostitution to a department store Santa to why suicide bombers should buy life insurance, Levitt and Dubner succeed in sharing unique datasets and telling a compelling story.  How did television empower women in India?  On the surface it may sound strange until you consider how they tell the story.

They provide inspiration as well. Their segment ‘The garden hose to the sky’ about global warming sounds funny on the surface until they share the idea is from Microsoft’s former technology director.  He is the principal owner in a scientific research firm that is developing tools to cool the earth.  It gets more interesting when you learn Bill Gates is an investor in the company.

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