Book Review: The Rich and the Rest of Us

My first non-fiction read for 2015 is a book I heard about on CNN, The Rich and the Rest of Us: A Poverty Manifesto by Tavis Smiley and Cornel West.

The problem:

Stagnant wages and increased costs for food, housing, health care, and education contribute to income inequality. 77 percent of Americans now live paycheck to paycheck, more and more people can’t afford to pay their rents. It takes two incomes to qualify as middle class. Nearly one-third of the middle class has fallen into poverty. In 2011 1.6 million children were homeless. 4.5 million people are on TANF benefits. Poverty is linked to low birth weight, hunger, neglect, frequent school-changing, and less parental involvement, which all feed the achievement gap. The book defines the working poor, the near poor, the new poor, and the permanently poor.

America’s manufacturing decline has accelerated in the year leading up to the Great Recession, and they are unlikely to ever come back. There is no longer enough work for able-bodied people, and too many workers earn less than a living wage. The authors cite that a staggering 45,000 people die each year due to lack of health insurance. And 14% of the population is on food stamps, with the average recipient receiving $150/month. The books warns of the possibility of the country imploding under the weight of escalating poverty.

The authors blame corporations for corruption and the death of the middle class, and don’t want to see any further privatization of education or health care. Their point is that profits trump people. And they paint banks as particularly evil, blaming predatory lending practices for the Great Recession. Politics are also the problem; the wealthy have a lot of lobbyists in Washington, the poor have none.

The book suggests that the rich want to ignore the poor, segregate themselves from the poor, claim that the poor are personally or socially responsible, and/or argue that the poor aren’t really poor since the average poor American household has luxuries such as a microwave, air conditioning, cable, and Xbox. Regardless, the income gap between the rich and everyone else is widening. Hard work, grit, and education may no longer be enough to pull or stay out of poverty. The wealth gap is a huge source of tension; people are restless.

The solution:

The authors feel that to eradicate poverty, you first need to acknowledge its existence and take away the stigma of poverty. Poverty is no longer caused solely by immorality, mental issues, alcoholism, and criminal activity. The dialog about poverty needs to change, as well as the policies. The book lays out 12 policy changing ideas that can help America move from poverty to prosperity.

The book takes an interesting jaunt through American political history with the positive and negative impacts on poverty. The authors call for the President to lead a task force to seriously explore how to end poverty now. They see part of the answer in less funding of foreign wars.

Poverty will decrease with an emphasis on living wage jobs, workplace daycare, and Head Start programs. The manifesto calls for all Americans to have access to quality health care and medical insurance. Tax loopholes need to close so that the rich pay their fair share of taxes. The authors cry out for an overhaul of the prison system.

According to the book, the focus should be on creating environmentally friendly and cost effective living spaces; use the unskilled poor to work at building green low-density multifamily structures and other community based infrastructure projects. They support debt forgiveness, resetting mortgages to current home values for “victims of predatory lending”. They’d also like to see foreclosed and vacant homes be converted to low income housing options and support grass root initiates with citizens illegally squatting in properties.

Hunger in America should not be a reality; we have the funds, transportation, and food available to solve food insecurity. Improving access to healthy, affordable foods and educating children about nutrition is a way to alleviate poverty and the related health issues. The book puts forward the idea of a new Universal Food Delivery System to expedite efforts to deliver fresh, canned, and packaged produce to the hungry, while also creating sustainable, living wage jobs.

My input:

I have seen my W-2 employer, in the past 20 years shift from an employee centered to stock price centered. I don’t view the company and its leaders as evil, but as adapting to the demands of the current economy. Without healthy earnings, we can’t have healthy living wage jobs.

I love the idea of getting healthier food options to the poor and supporting small farms and urban farming for everyone. I’m not sure people want to eat healthier though; it’s more time consuming, expensive, and less appealing than eating high calorie low nutrition food.

Vacant houses are a big problem in the low income neighborhood we invest in. I’d love to see some creative options to halt neighborhood decline other than supporting squatting.

The book was interesting, but pretty far from my political views. I don’t view poverty as 21st-century style slavery. I also didn’t find the suggested solutions to be particularly actionable. Either way, it all takes money. And people who care enough to get involved.