Broke in America by Joanne Samuel Goldblum

Essential and timely, Broke in America offers a crucial road map for securing a brighter future. Fortunately, it's much easier to fix policy than people. So far, our attempted solutions have fallen short because they try to 'fix' poor people rather than address the underlying problems. They also highlight outdated and ineffective policies that are causing or contributing to this unnecessary problem.Įvery chapter features action items readers can use to combat poverty-both nationwide and in our local communities, including the most effective public policies you can support and how to work hand-in-hand with representatives to affect change. In clear, accessible prose, Goldblum and Shaddox detail the ways the current system is broken and how it's failing so many of us. Poverty is close to inevitable for low-wage workers and their children, and a large percentage of these people, despite qualifying for it, do not receive government aid.įrom Joanne Samuel Goldblum and Colleen Shaddox, Broke in America offers an eye-opening and galvanizing look at life in poverty in this country: how circumstances and public policy conspire to keep people poor, and the concrete steps we can take to end poverty for good. Public policy has purposefully erected barriers that deny access to basic needs, creating a society where people can easily become trapped-not because we lack the resources to lift them out, but because we are actively choosing not to.

While poverty is commonly seen as a personal failure, or a deficiency of character or knowledge, it's actually the result of bad policy. Low-income families and individuals are everywhere, from cities to rural communities. Nearly 40 million people in the United States live below the poverty line-about $26,200 for a family of four. With key policy changes, we could eradicate poverty in this country within our lifetime-but we need to get started now. The most basic and crucial needs for survival, yet 40 percent of people in the United States don't have the resources to get them.

Broke in America by Joanne Samuel Goldblum