This SDG will examine the issue of poverty in America, what it is, what the extent of it is, contributing factors to it and the solutions that have been proposed to cure it. It will make use of two core books including that of Princeton Professor Matthew Desmond's best seller Poverty by America which argues that poverty in the US is the product not only of larger economic shifts, but of choices and actions by more fortunate Americans. It also will use Professors Mark Robert Rank, Lawrence M. Eppard and Heather E. Bullock's book, Poorly Understood: What America Gets Wrong About Poverty. The SDG will then look at numerous other sources to learn how many other factors may have an impact including race, deindustrialization, housing, health care, the decline in unionization, social programs, and the ascendance of neoliberalism. Finally the class will look at the many proposals for reducing poverty not only from the two core books but from conservative, to liberal to socialist thinkers.
1. Revisiting a classic, Michael Harrington's The Other America. Rank, Introduction, Section I Who Are the Poor? Chapter 2. Most Americans Experience Poverty. Chapter 3. The Poor Tend to Live Outside of Impoverished Inner-City Neighborhoods. Chapter 4. Poverty Spells Are short but Frequent. Chapter 5. Whites Are the Largest Racial Group Experiencing Poverty.
2. Rank, Section II Why Is There Poverty? Chapter. 6. Hard Work Is Insufficient. Chapter 7. Raising Education and Skill Levels Will Not Solve Poverty Alone. Chapter 8. Decision-Making Is Constrained for Those With Fewer Resources. Chapter 9. Poverty is Preventable. Section III What Is the Cost of Poverty? Chapter 10. America's Poor Are Worse Off Than Elsewhere. Chapter 11. The Economic Cost of Poverty Is Enormous. Chapter 12. The Moral Ground to View Poverty Is Injustice.
3. Rank, Section IV Does Welfare Work? Chapter 13. The U.S. Welfare State Is Minimal. Chapter 14. Welfare Fraud Is Scarce. Chapter 15. Government Programs Can Reduce Poverty. Section V How Extensive Is Inequality? Chapter 16. The United States Is No Longer a Land of Upward Mobility and Opportunity. Chapter 17. The Playing Field Is Uneven. Chapter 18. Inequality Matters.
4. Rank, Section VI Pulling It Together Chapter 19. Why Do the Myths Persist? Chapter 20. Reshaping Social Policy. Chapter 21. Crating the Change. Desmond, Prologue, Chapter 1. The Kind of Problem Poverty is. Chapter 2. Why Haven't We Made More Progress?
5. Desmond, Chapter 3. How We Undercut Workers. Chapter 4. How We Force the Poor To Pay More. Chapter 5. How We Rely on Welfare.
6. Desmond, Chapter 6. How We Buy Opportunity. Chapter 7. Invest in Ending Poverty. Chapter 8. Impower the Poor.
7. Chapter 9. Tear Down the Walls. Epilogue.
Systemic Inequality, https://www.americanprogress.org/article/systematic-inequality/.
The Rich Get Richer: Neo-liberalism and Soaring Inequality in the United States https://peri.umass.edu/fileadmin/pdf/working_papers/working_papers_301-350/WP302.pdf.
8. The Social Costs of Deindustrialization https://ysu.edu/center-working-class-studies/social-costs-deindustrialization https://ysu.edu/center-working-class-studies/social-costs-deindustrialization.
Manufactured Crisis: Deindustrialization, Free Markets and National Security https://www.cato.org/publications/policy-analysis/manufactured-crisis-deindustrialization-free-markets-national-security.
Unions Help Reduce Disparities and Strengthen Our Economy. https://www.epi.org/publication/unions-help-reduce-disparities-and-strengthen-our-democracy/.
9. Housing affordability in the U.S.: Key facts | Pew Research Center https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2022/03/23/key-facts-about-housing-affordability-in-the-u-s/.
Housing affordability and quality create stress for Heartland families https://www.brookings.edu/blog/the-avenue/2019/07/02/housing-affordability-and-quality-create-stress-for-heartland-families/.
The American Health-Care System Increases Income Inequality https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/01/health-care-income-inequality-premiums.
The Effects of Household Medical Expenditures on Income Inequality in the United States https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5803800/.
Here’s the Conservative Plan to Improve Health Care https://www.heritage.org/health-care-reform/commentary/heres-the-conservative-plan-improve-health-care.
10. Safety Net Improvements That Could Help Keep Families Together https://talkpoverty.org/2016/09/01/3-safety-net-improvements-help-keep-families-together/.
Reducing Poverty the Republican Way https://inequality.stanford.edu/sites/default/files/Pathways_Presidential_Republican-Way.pdf.
Universal Basic Income Has Been Tested Repeatedly. It Works. Will America Ever Embrace It?https://www.washingtonpost.com/magazine/2022/10/24/universal-basic-income/.
The Best Way to Fight Poverty Is a Combination of Conservative and Liberal Policy https://www.newsweek.com/best-way-fight-poverty-combination-conservative-liberal-policy-opinion-1602950.
A Debate on Poverty, Susquehanna University https://www.susqu.edu/live/news/1411-debate-on-poverty-poses-counter-conservative'.
Socialism Is the Solution, https://www.bcheights.com/2017/02/26/socialism-is-the-solution/.
How Socialism Discourages Work and Creates Poverty https://fee.org/articles/how-socialism-discourages-work-and-creates-poverty/.
Mark Robert Rank, Lawrence M. Eppard and Heather E. Bullock, Poorly Understood: What America Gets Wrong About Poverty, Oxford University Press, 2021.
Mathew Desmond, Poverty by America, Crown, 2023.
Systemic Inequality, https://www.americanprogress.org/article/systematic-inequality/.
Housing affordability in the U.S.: Key facts | Pew Research Center https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2022/03/23/key-facts-about-housing-affordability-in-the-u-s/.
Housing affordability and quality create stress for Heartland families https://www.brookings.edu/blog/the-avenue/2019/07/02/housing-affordability-and-quality-create-stress-for-heartland-families/.
The Rich Get Richer: Neo-liberalism and Soaring Inequality in the United States https://peri.umass.edu/fileadmin/pdf/working_papers/working_papers_301-350/WP302.pdf.
Unions Help Reduce Disparities and Strengthen Our Economy https://www.epi.org/publication/unions-help-reduce-disparities-and-strengthen-our-democracy/
3 Safety Net Improvements That Could Help Keep Families Together https://talkpoverty.org/2016/09/01/3-safety-net-improvements-help-keep-families-together/.
The Social Costs of Deindustrialization https://ysu.edu/center-working-class-studies/social-costs-deindustrialization.
Manufactured Crisis: Deindustrialization, Free Markets and National Security,https://www.cato.org/publications/policy-analysis/manufactured-crisis-deindustrialization-free-markets-national-security.
The American Health-Care System Increases Income Inequality https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/01/health-care-income-inequality-premiums.
The Effects of Household Medical Expenditures on Income Inequality in the United States https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5803800/.
Here’s the Conservative Plan to Improve Health Care https://www.heritage.org/health-care-reform/commentary/heres-the-conservative-plan-improve-health-care.
Reducing Poverty the Republican Way https://inequality.stanford.edu/sites/default/files/Pathways_Presidential_Republican-Way.pdf.
Universal Basic Income Has Been Tested Repeatedly. It Works. Will America Ever Embrace It?https://www.washingtonpost.com/magazine/2022/10/24/universal-basic-income/
The Best Way to Fight Poverty Is a Combination of Conservative and Liberal Policy https://www.newsweek.com/best-way-fight-poverty-combination-conservative-liberal-policy-opinion-1602950.
A Debate on Poverty, Susquehanna University https://www.susqu.edu/live/news/1411-debate-on-poverty-poses-counter-conservative'.
Socialism Is the Solution, https://www.bcheights.com/2017/02/26/socialism-is-the-solution/.
How Socialism Discourages Work and Creates Poverty https://fee.org/articles/how-socialism-discourages-work-and-creates-poverty/
Supplemental optional reading: Michael Harrington, The Other America: Poverty in the United States, 50th Anniversary Ed. , Simon and Schuster Press, 2012.