Hi, I am Holly Mercer, Library Director at Dodge City Community College. I selected the book Poverty, By America written by Matthew Desmond because I read his first book Evicted when it was published in 2016 and found it to be intriguing.
In his book, Matthew defines the social issue of poverty and asks why there is poverty in America. His quest to answer this question is rooted in his childhood where he experienced poverty. As he grew older the question remained as he saw individuals who have much and individuals who had little. This observation led him to research many of the social issues around poverty. Along with sharing data in the book, he shares examples of individuals who live in poverty and gives a backdrop into the social issues that contribute to a state of scarcity.
With a sense of urgency, he explains how poverty affects one's life. He writes, "Poverty is diminished life and personhood. It changes how you think and prevents you from realizing your full potential. It shrinks the mental energy you can dedicate to decisions, forcing you to focus on the latest stressor - an overdue gas bill, a lost job - at the expense of everything else."
This book offers possible solutions to ending poverty in the United States. One way is to rethink our assumptions about those who live in poverty, which can help us to connect to people. For instance, a stereotype that is held about the poor is they spend a large portion of their income on alcohol. This does not line up with the facts. Those living in poverty tend to focus on meeting their basic needs of housing, utilities, groceries, and health care.
Another solution he mentions is making sure that funds for government programs, such as food stamps, go directly to the families instead of being diverted to other programs. Though ending poverty sounds like an expensive proposition, he makes it clear that if the 1% wealthiest Americans paid taxes they owed, there would be almost enough to pull everyone out of poverty.
Recently, I participated in a roundtable discussion sponsored by the American Library Association centered on this book. We discussed how poverty affects individuals and society, as well as the role libraries can play in reducing poverty. As information professionals one of our primary conclusions is the importance of education.
Another area we recognized is that often urban public libraries have social workers on their staff. These social workers help to connect individuals to federal programs that may better assist them. Beyond having social workers, we discussed how libraries can set an example for other organizations and have policies that ensure library workers are paid a living wage and access to good quality health care.
Our discussion ran up until our allotted time and we felt we had much more we could have discussed.
The book discussion reminded me of the importance of bringing difficult, challenging, and complicated topics to light. Listening to others and hearing different perspectives is one way to hear new ideas. Sharing ideas, and working together are how we make progress and, in my opinion, this is one powerful way we can all be a part of trying to reduce poverty.
This is Holly Mercer for High Plains Radio Readers Book Club.
