Poverty by America starts off strong by making a clear case that poverty in the United States is not an accident or a failure of the average American person, but a product of intentional policy design.

At first, I was surprised to read a book about poverty that blamed both American political parties. As much as Reagan is blamed for America's economic issues, Desmond makes it clear that Democrats have been just as culpable in maintaining economic inequality.

The problem is that his critique wants to be revolutionary, but in the end leans on liberal reformist politics and pragmatism. He often uses language that falls into vague moral handwaving. "Racism exists" as a passive system, not something intentionally built into our country's DNA and intrinsically intertwined with capitalism.

His passive language paired with his attempt to be radical in critiquing America's bipartisan economic system created a sense of cognitive dissonance, like the author wanted his argument to appear revolutionary but keep it within the confines of liberal academia.

Though I wanted to overlook his intentional rhetorical choices and approach this as a slightly flattened primer, the last chapter & epilogue completely devolves into a "poverty abolitionist manifesto" that feels devoid of any teeth. His radical plan for abolition? Voting. Incredible.

Listen, there's some of that I can get behind. Yes, you should vote locally. Yes, if you are able, you should be showing up to city/state government meetings and getting involved. But, where's the organizing? Where's the mutual aid? Where's the actual change?

I find it very telling that he tiptoes around the issue of capitalism as a system while co-opting abolitionist language. There were some subtle anti-left jabs thrown in for good measure, too. "Policy over rhetoric" and "action over purity" sounds like it was stolen straight from the culture war comments of TikTok.

Genuinely, how can you write a book that claims to critique systems of power that keep poverty in place, and not name capitalism as the issue? How can you go from "Democrats and Republicans are both responsible" but in the same breath say "but we can vote our way out"? So disingenuous.

Also, you just can't talk about poverty without talking about imperialism. America has created poverty across the globe, and once you understand how capitalism is the root of that evil, it's impossible to unsee the pattern of how that violence comes home, and how it all serves the same end: to put more money into the pockets of wealth-hoarding elites.

In the end, Poverty by America felt like a quick cash grab designed to placate middle-class white people into feeling like they're "doing the right thing", and it felt frankly disgusting to co-opt actual radical language to push reformist, moderate action.

Read this for an introduction into why poverty exists and how it's kept in place, but with a big fat "IF". I recommend this IF you read with the subtext that capitalism is the machine that allows wealth hoarding and poverty to go unchecked, and the system is working by design and requires more action than just votes and prayers. The value in this book is not prescriptive; read it to understand the symptoms but don't take its bad medicine.