Feldman's Faves: April 17, 2023

GOOD MORNING EVERYONE

Well Raptors fans, I think we officially back into rebuild mode. That play-in game was painful to watch and apparently we have Diar DeRozan to blame…..And as the Back Street Boys once said, “quit playing games with my heart”. At least we can still have hope for the Leafs and the Jays.

Thanks to everyone doing their part to come in to the office. Our Monday/Wednesday/Thursday in office plan is working extremely well.

This week focuses solely on Matthew Desmond’s latest book in which he makes the argument that the problem of poverty in America is solvable.

POVERTY, BY AMERICA By: Matthew Desmond – One of the most interesting books I read during the pandemic was Matthew Desmond’s Pulitzer Prize winning book entitled, Eviction, in which Desmond described the trauma that people experience with housing insecurity. In writing this book, Desmond moved to Milwaukee and followed a number of families who for, a whole host of reasons, were evicted from their homes. Eviction struck a chord with many readers and policy wonks and made people really think about this crisis and how to solve it. In his latest book, Poverty, By America, Desmond tackles an even more ambitious topic – ending poverty in America. His basic premise is that there needs to be a modern day abolitionist movement in America against poverty and that not only is this a moral imperative but a highly achievable objective if the certain steps are taken, including with US government simply moving forward certain policy initiatives to redistribute wealth and to do so in more effective manner than is being done today (e.g., closing tax loopholes). He also thinks that more aware and mindful consumer behaviour could move things forward on this topic (e.g., choosing companies that are more worker friendly such as UPS over FEDEX). Desmond spends a lot of time highlighting how states allocate funds in a way that is just insane (e.g., welfare funds in Mississippi being used to fund speeches from Bret Favre). He also talks about how there are two systems in America – one for the rich (or even middle class) and another for the poor. For example, he spends a lot of time discussing banking and credit and gives the examples of free checking accounts for the rich versus massive overdraft fees for the poor, which costs billions of dollars every year and is borne disproportionately by those who can least afford it. There are countless examples that Desmond gives that require minor tweaks that could fundamentally shift the war against poverty. There are also some more ambitious ideas that we have heard many times before such as finding more affordable housing, ensuring access to healthcare (including safe contraceptive care) and shining light on the predatory pay day loan industry. As one reviewer notes, “Having won a coveted MacArthur Foundation “genius” grant in 2015, Desmond is known for his absorbing previous book on eviction practices in housing, which netted him a Pulitzer prize in 2017. He starts his ambitious new study by demonstrating how enduring American poverty is. The current poverty line is represented by an income of $13,590 a year for an individual and $27,750 for a family of four. The number of Americans below it has hovered between 10% and 15% for decades, with calls and plans for reform amounting to “50 years of nothing”. The only exception was the brief period of pandemic relief, which drove poverty down “tremendously” – for children, by more than 50%. But things are now returning to form….The brilliance of Poverty, By America lies in Desmond’s account of how government and social policy act in ways commensurate with his class-war thesis. Its texture is provided by effective storytelling, which illustrates that poverty has become a way of life, “a relentless piling on of problems”. Living paycheck to paycheck means a precarious existence and “feverish present-mindedness” for people near the margin of daily survival. One cause is a labour market that forces workers to help companies achieve profits while underpaying them, simply because they can. Desmond shows that the American economy has increasingly allowed business to enjoy power to coerce people into earning less for doing more. He insists he’s not a Marxist – though he writes that raising the spectre of exploitation always makes him sound like he is. Yet Desmond’s argument foregrounds precisely the extraction of surplus value that Marxists describe. The changing nature of work opportunities in America, along with the collapse of union density in the last 50 years, mean the forces of capitalism are winning. “Capitalism is inherently about workers trying to get as much, and owners trying to give as little, as possible,” Desmond observes – and poverty endures because the first group has lost many battles against the second. And if an American ideology that harps on personal responsibility forbids direct government payments to poor people, Desmond documents how the state offers tax breaks that systematically benefit the rich (and, he might have added, corporations too). Compared with European welfare states, the US is no less generous towards its citizens – but only if they are wealthy enough. “The biggest beneficiaries of federal aid,” Desmond writes, “are affluent families.” Even when it does not privilege the privileged so glaringly, it does so in effect: the richer you are, the likelier you are to hire an accountant and get away with paying less. As a result, “a trend toward private opulence and public squalor has come to determine not simply a handful of communities, but the whole nation”. Why? Because “we like it”….Desmond knows that a structural reality requires a structural solution. He goes beyond calling for greater fairness, since further hectoring is unlikely to work. He suggests empowering the poor, which means more unionisation and new rules to make housing more affordable and lending less predatory. Integrating neighbourhoods by class (which means by race) is also a worthwhile aim. But who will achieve these goals if, according to Desmond’s own story, it is in the interest of the powerful not to work towards them in the first place? Poverty will be abolished in America only when a mass movement demands it,” he writes. But what is missing here is a vision of how that would work through the existing parties – or, for that matter, a new one. The poorer you are, the less likely you are to vote. That is why the fate of the poor is dependent on the combination of Desmond’s agenda with an even larger one, so their demands can be associated with the interests of a broader section of the population. Rising inequality – the disparity between the super-rich and the rest – which affects a greater number of people above the poverty line than below it, is one possible vehicle for this. But it requires an electoral force willing to put it at the top of the agenda. “The poor shall never cease out of the land”, according to Deuteronomy. If this is to be proved wrong in America, it will be when a political party champions the interest of the many, not the few – and no sooner.” Talk of course is cheap – I wonder if those in charge will ever consider these arguments and actually do anything about it. If I were to bet, I think the place to put the smart money is pretty obvious on this one. Here is a great review from the NYT - https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/13/books/review/poverty-by-america-matthew-desmond.html

The Next Big Idea – Abolish Poverty: Matthew Desmond on How We Can Do It - If you don’t have the time or interest in reading the book, this PODCAST does a good job explaining its key ideas. Here’s an excerpt from the PODCAST itself, “RUFUS GRISCOM: Could you share with us your broader mission and how your new book, “Poverty, by America,” supports that mission? MATTHEW DESMOND: I want to end poverty. I want to be part of the movement that’s growing around the country not to treat it but to cure it, not to reduce it but to abolish it. And I say that because we can. We can, as a country, put an end to all this scarcity and deprivation in our midst”:https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/the-next-big-idea/id1482067226?i=1000605523444

Thank you for your ongoing engagement and participation.

And remember to stay safe, stay healthy and to docket daily.

Jon