Amber Webb, blog 1

I feel the the premise of the book is to bring awareness to poverty in the United States and to offer insight and ideas of how we can change to help eliminate it.  Abramsky offers many personal stories, information from The Other America, and statistics from the U.S. Census Bureau to support his ideas.

            There have been several passages that have struck me this far.  The passage on page 33 discussing the most affluent people shocked me with the statistic, “…about 30,000 Americans control one in thirty of the dollars circulating among a population of roughly 300 million people” (Abramsky, 2013) really shocked me. I was also surprised to find Georgia does not provide medical coverage to childless, low income adults (Abramsky, 2013, p.69). I feel if people are unable to find a job that either provides coverage or pays enough for the employee to purchase it on their own, help is necessary.  One accident or big illness can put a couple into a hole they will never be able to dig out of. Another passage that struck me was the section about the progressive area and President Johnson’s recognition of the country’s poor. His state of the union address is inspiring (Abramsky, 2013, p. 75-77).

            I feel when Abramsky says Swedes tolerate a lot higher taxes than we as Amercians do, he means Swedes feel they are receiving something for their taxes.  I would gladly tolerate higher taxes if I were receiving health care, a quality education for myself and my sons, childcare, and more in exchange for those taxes.