This is a new publication which I was led to by a favourable review in the Economist. It's a slim book padded out with lots of photographs, wide margins and wide spacing of lines. It's printed on super heavy, glossy paper to make it seem like a weighty book (and it is heavy).
The book is a study of what life in America is like for the most under-privileged people. It consists of more or less verbatim accounts of conversations with people the author meets on his travels. He summarises the common themes he hears and compares and contrasts their experiences with those of affluent Americans. The author really doesn't have that much to say and he repeats it many times, saying much the same thing about different people in different cities.
Nevertheless, since much of what he discovered appeared to be news to him, and therefore presumably to many other people with a similar socio-economic background, the book was well worth publishing. Maybe it should be compulsory reading. He did unearth some counter-intuitive facts, such as the churches are the most effective support organisations because they give people spiritual support - a sense of self worth and belonging - as well as material help.
The stories people told him about their lives were heart rending. It is beyond belief that the richest country in the world has abandoned so many people to dire poverty and thinks it has done a good job because the economy is growing. Most of the people interviewed had previously enjoyed a modest but viable lifestyle working in factories before the elites moved all the jobs offshore.
Some analysis of what might be done would have been very interesting, but at least the author does provide a statement of the problem, which is good because politicians don't seem to understand it. We could do with a UK version of the book to educate our politicians.
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