Fred, thanks for your thought-provoking narrative; and Fred and Rob, thanks for this podcast. (BTW, the sound quality was much better than in your first podcast!)
Although I am an admirer of Matthew Desmond's book "Evicted," I haven't read "Poverty, by America"--and, according to what Fred said in the podcast, I don't need to read it :)--but I was shocked by something Rob quoted from the book, which I just found online: "In 2020, the federal government spent more than $193 billion on subsidies for homeowners — 'most families who enjoy this benefit have six-figure incomes and are white' — but just $53 billion on direct housing assistance for low-income families. That's not for lack of need. Because of chronic federal underinvestment, only 1 in 4 extremely low-income Americans who qualify for housing aid get it." (Rob just quoted part of the first half of this excerpt, but that was shocking enough.) Although this statistic was new to me, I of course DID know about tax cuts for the rich and corporate bailouts.
Fred and Rob expressed the hope that we will all hold ourselves accountable by contacting our elected representatives to call their attention to the terrible inequities that Desmond describes and to demand that they do as much as they can to lift those in need out of poverty. And we don't have to wait until Congress reconvenes on September 5 to do so.
Rob and I are holding ourselves accountable to draft a proposed script for people to use when they contact there federal legislators. I think I can speak for Rob that we are both pleased and a little overwhelmed by what we committed to do. I certainly hope that this will be done shortly.
really great
kind of you to say.
I hope to have you on one of these podcasts about books.
Much love
Fred
Fred, thanks for your thought-provoking narrative; and Fred and Rob, thanks for this podcast. (BTW, the sound quality was much better than in your first podcast!)
Although I am an admirer of Matthew Desmond's book "Evicted," I haven't read "Poverty, by America"--and, according to what Fred said in the podcast, I don't need to read it :)--but I was shocked by something Rob quoted from the book, which I just found online: "In 2020, the federal government spent more than $193 billion on subsidies for homeowners — 'most families who enjoy this benefit have six-figure incomes and are white' — but just $53 billion on direct housing assistance for low-income families. That's not for lack of need. Because of chronic federal underinvestment, only 1 in 4 extremely low-income Americans who qualify for housing aid get it." (Rob just quoted part of the first half of this excerpt, but that was shocking enough.) Although this statistic was new to me, I of course DID know about tax cuts for the rich and corporate bailouts.
Fred and Rob expressed the hope that we will all hold ourselves accountable by contacting our elected representatives to call their attention to the terrible inequities that Desmond describes and to demand that they do as much as they can to lift those in need out of poverty. And we don't have to wait until Congress reconvenes on September 5 to do so.
Susan
Thank you for responding to this.
Rob and I are holding ourselves accountable to draft a proposed script for people to use when they contact there federal legislators. I think I can speak for Rob that we are both pleased and a little overwhelmed by what we committed to do. I certainly hope that this will be done shortly.
Much love
Fred
Okay, I will contact my elected representatives. What should I tell them?