The United States, the richest country on earth, has further poverty than any other advanced republic. Why? Why does this land of plenitude allow one in every eight of its children to go without introductory musts, permit scores of its citizens to live and die on the thoroughfares, and authorize its pots to pay poverty stipend?

In this corner book, accredited sociologist Matthew Desmond draws on history, exploration, and original reporting to show how rich Americans deliberately and intentionally keep poor people poor. Those of us who are financially secure exploit the poor, driving down their stipend while forcing them to overpay for casing and access to cash and credit. We prioritize the subsidization of our wealth over the relief of poverty, designing a weal state that gives the most to those who need the least. And we cache occasion in exclusive communities, creating zones of concentrated riches alongside those of concentrated despair. Some lives are made small so that others may grow.

Elegantly written and fiercely argued, this compassionate book gives us new ways of allowing about a innocently critical problem. It also helps us imagine results. Desmond builds a startlingly original and ambitious case for ending poverty. He calls on us all to come poverty abolitionists, engaged in a politics of collaborative belonging to usher in a new age of combined substance and, at last, true freedom.