A searing, rage-inducing look at how the misery of the poor lines the pockets of the rich.
A startling study of how private companies—and their wealthy executives—exploit poor customers.
As Washington Monthly contributing editor Kim, author of Abandoned: America’s Lost Youth and the Crisis of Disconnection, demonstrates in this searing text, some of the nation’s most vulnerable populations are fertile ground for predatory private businesses that take advantage of them and send the bill to the federal government. This “vast ecosystem of industries” (which the author calls “Poverty Inc.”) costs the federal government—and consequently, taxpayers—a staggering $900 billion per year. This dizzying array of companies includes medical care, food provision, and prison services. Kim’s litany of well-documented stories are both sobering and infuriating: Tax preparation companies are able to prey on low-income households because “the tax code is complex, and taxpayers are fearful.” Consulting firms get rich off running states’ antipoverty programs. A network of “American Job Centers” often fails to adequately prepare participants for employment. “Health care profiteer” franchises such as Kool Smiles provide medically unnecessary, Medicaid-funded root canals and other procedures. Food service corporations like Aramark stock prison commissaries with low-nutrient junk food, at a markup. After chronicling the misdeeds of Poverty Inc., Kim shows how Congress could improve this morass of profiteering through sharper oversight and better data collection. The list of shoddy practices is exhaustive and devastating, and the great challenge is in shifting a system that makes too many people too much money. Not only are these industries exploitative and extremely expensive; they also contribute to persistent poverty through both passive means—incompetence and inefficiency—and active, via lobbying to block reforms that would help the poor but “endanger [corporations’] revenue streams.” Poverty, in other words, is big business.
A searing, rage-inducing look at how the misery of the poor lines the pockets of the rich.Pub Date: May 28, 2024
ISBN: 9781620977811
Page Count: 352
Publisher: The New Press
Review Posted Online: March 1, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
An important dialogue at a fraught time, emphasizing mutual candor, curiosity, and respect.
Two bestselling authors engage in an enlightening back-and-forth about Jewishness and antisemitism.
Acho, author of Uncomfortable Conversations With a Black Man, and Tishby, author of Israel: A Simple Guide to the Most Misunderstood Country on Earth, discuss many of the searing issues for Jews today, delving into whether Jewishness is a religion, culture, ethnicity, or community—or all of the above. As Tishby points out, unlike in Christianity, one can be comfortably atheist and still be considered a Jew. She defines Judaism as a “big tent” religion with four main elements: religion, peoplehood, nationhood, and the idea of tikkun olam (“repairing the world through our actions”). She addresses candidly the hurtful stereotypes about Jews (that they are rich and powerful) that Acho grew up with in Dallas and how Jews internalize these antisemitic judgments. Moreover, Tishby notes, “it is literally impossible to be Jewish and not have any connection with Israel, and I’m not talking about borders or a dot on the map. Judaism…is an indigenous religion.” Acho wonders if one can legitimately criticize “Jewish people and their ideologies” without being antisemitic, and Tishby offers ways to check whether one’s criticism of Jews or Zionism is antisemitic or factually straightforward. The authors also touch on the deteriorating relationship between Black and Jewish Americans, despite their historically close alliance during the civil rights era. “As long as Jewish people get to benefit from appearing white while Black people have to suffer for being Black, there will always be resentment,” notes Acho. “Because the same thing that grants you all access—your skin color—is what grants us pain and punishment in perpetuity.” Finally, the authors underscore the importance of being mutual allies, and they conclude with helpful indexes on vernacular terms and customs.
An important dialogue at a fraught time, emphasizing mutual candor, curiosity, and respect.Pub Date: April 30, 2024
ISBN: 9781668057858
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Simon Element
Review Posted Online: March 13, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A fierce, penetrating, and empowering call for change.
Artist and activist Vaid-Menon demonstrates how the normativity of the gender binary represses creativity and inflicts physical and emotional violence.
The author, whose parents emigrated from India, writes about how enforcement of the gender binary begins before birth and affects people in all stages of life, with people of color being especially vulnerable due to Western conceptions of gender as binary. Gender assignments create a narrative for how a person should behave, what they are allowed to like or wear, and how they express themself. Punishment of nonconformity leads to an inseparable link between gender and shame. Vaid-Menon challenges familiar arguments against gender nonconformity, breaking them down into four categories—dismissal, inconvenience, biology, and the slippery slope (fear of the consequences of acceptance). Headers in bold font create an accessible navigation experience from one analysis to the next. The prose maintains a conversational tone that feels as intimate and vulnerable as talking with a best friend. At the same time, the author's turns of phrase in moments of deep insight ring with precision and poetry. In one reflection, they write, “the most lethal part of the human body is not the fist; it is the eye. What people see and how people see it has everything to do with power.” While this short essay speaks honestly of pain and injustice, it concludes with encouragement and an invitation into a future that celebrates transformation.
A fierce, penetrating, and empowering call for change. (writing prompt) (Nonfiction. 14-adult)Pub Date: June 2, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-593-09465-5
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Penguin Workshop
Review Posted Online: March 14, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2020
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