Nifty nibbles from Poverty, By America / Matthew Desmond
I’ve started reading Desmond’s latest book, Poverty, By America and wanted to share a few savory tidbits.
“If the poor had a costless way to access their own money, over a billion dollars would have remained in their pockets during the pandemic-induced recession.” Check cashing stores charge from 1 to 10 percent of the check’s value.
Landlords who rent property in poor neighborhoods earn more profit than landlords who rent in richer neighborhoods. Slum lords on average reap $300 per apartment per month in profit, compared to middle class property landlords who take $225 per month per apartment. This is after adjusting for vacancies, non-payment of rent, and all other business costs. If renting low quality housing was truly higher risk, profits would not consistently be higher.
Heard of the three rules to avoid poverty? They are graduate from high school, get a full-time job, and wait until you are married to have children. Do these three things and you will not be poor. Sounds great. Problem is more poor people had followed all three rules than had broken them. Black Americans who followed them were less likely to escape poverty than white Americans who also followed them.
In 1960, one in 20 people in America was born in another country. Today, it’s one in eight.
“The average white household headed by someone with a high school diploma has more wealth than the average Black household headed by someone with a college degree.”
“Misery, the French sociologist Eugene Buret one remarked, ‘is poverty felt morally.’”
On nearly every page, I’ve underlined something that is worth a whole blog post. I highly recommend adding this book to your stack.
