'Poverty, by America' is a book about how and why the rest of us abide poverty and are complicit in it

Matthew Desmond’s previous book, “Evicted, is emphatically about the lives of the poor.

It followed eight struggling families trying to stay housed in Milwaukee, where, in the poorest neighborhoods, the median rent for a two-bedroom apartment was only $50 less than the citywide median.

The book's power resided in its stories, which Desmond told with a keen eye for detail.

"Poverty, by America" is a book about how and why the rest of us abide poverty and are complicit in it.

Desmond argues that as a society we have made a priority of other things: maximal wealth accumulation for the few and cheap stuff for the many.

He says we've either ignored or enabled the gouging of the poor.

The U.S. welfare state is the second biggest in the world, after France’s, Desmond says.

To enjoy most of these benefits, you need to have a well-paying job, a home that you own, and probably an accountant.

Americans who benefit from social spending in the form of, say, a mortgage-interest tax deduction don’t see themselves as recipients of governmental generosity.