202D Book Report

Peter Edelman, So Rich, So Poor: Why Its So Hard to End Poverty in

America (2013)
Chapter 2: What we Have Accomplished
Hiding the Facts
Senator Ernest Fritz Hollings of South Carolina begged to not
publicize the issues of the state and promised to take control
and leadership on the hunger issue.
The politicians in the states that are so badly affected prove to
be unaware of the severity of the issues at hand.
SNAP
SNAP is the current name for food stamps (Supplemental
Nutrition Assistance Program) and is considered to be a
successful public policy as a whole. The purpose of SNAP is to
provide a small nutritional income supplement to those who do
not have any other income.
Chapter 3: Why Are We Stuck?
Conservatives
Conservatives in America are known as being quick to judge the
poverty situation. Many conservatives think that because there
are billions of dollars spent yearly to help low income families
that the situation should get better. This is not the case.
Race and Gender
It is a common misconception that poverty relates to minorities.
The book discusses the statistics supporting that the largest
number of the poor has always been white and that white is the
predominant color of poverty (30).
Chapter 4: Jobs
The issue that people are facing in America is not necessarily
with getting a job, but having that job pay enough money to live
on. These people need welfare in order to live.
In the 1970s, the types of jobs were shifting and began to
require more skills. This hurt people who didnt have high
school diplomas.
Chapter 5: Deep Poverty
Geographic Location
Geographic location plays a huge part of the hole in the safety
net. For example, some people are in deep poverty because they
are unable to get TANF. These people live in rural regions that
are far away from jobs.
Politics vs. Generosity
Disconnect between politics and general generosity.

Americans do have emotions and are extremely generous to

families in need.
Chapter 6: Concentrated Poverty: The Abandoned
Edelman focuses on people in poverty who are living in the
inner city. This focuses on African American people who live
amid conditions of concentrated, persistent, and integration
poverty far more than the rest of the poor.
This chapter raises one main question that I found to be
interesting. The main question is what we need to do to deconcentrate the poverty of the inner cities

On Hiding the Facts

Hollings took a hunger tour of South Caroline and pronounced
himself appalled (as he no doubt was) by what he had seen) (11).
Why Are We Stuck?
At the end of the Clinton administration, the poverty level was 11.3
percent of the population, only a tick higher than the 1973 low point
of 11.1 percent (25).
On SNAP
SNAP is unquestionably a successful public policy story. Its original
expansion and maturation to nationwide status under a Republican
president is a case study in effective advocacy It brings almost all
poor people together within a single benefit structure and has also
now proven itself to be a powerful tool to cushion the devastating
force of our Great Recession (12).
Why is SNAP such a success, especially in comparison to welfare?
For one thing, fighting hunger is more attractive politically than
handing out cash. It has more instinctive appeal and tends to assure
voters that the aid is less likely to be abused (13).
Conservatives
Conservatives overlook one key fact: the American economy has
changed radically over the past forty years. Wages have not risen and
with that stagnation, the income of those in the bottom half have been
languished as well. Antipoverty remedies have been swimming
upstream against these economic trends (32).
On Unions

Unions have more trouble thriving in a world which industries are no

longer organized as stable clusters of a few big firms with large
profits to share (51).
The Abandoned
The inner city poor are a fairly small minority of the poor overall, but
they are the central players in the political drama about poverty,
especially those who are African American. These are the
quintessential places where race, poverty, and politics intersect, with
awful results. (102).
On Race
One, the largest number of the poor has always been white. The crux
of the poverty problem is often perceived as there being too many
African American single mothers. It is not: white is the predominant
color of poverty. And the fact that the largest number of the poor is
white means that many of the remedies for poverty are race and
gender neutral and would benefit whites more than any other group
(30).