Savannah Regis first book blog

1. What is the central idea or premise of the book thus far?
     I think the central idea so far is to show what a problem poverty is and how poorly it is being handled. Ambramsky illustrated the real struggles of poverty and gives alternative ideas on how to solve the problem or at least a better way. I empathize with her argument because there has to be better ways because what we, as a country, are doing now, isn't working. I think she is frustrated and wants to open the reader eyes to things they make not think about or realize. 

3. Have any specific passages from the book have struck you so far? If so,
which ones?

     On page 51 she says "In the same way that our political culture lacks the language to adequately confront poverty, so too in recent years it has lacked a vocabulary to explain why rampant inequality is a problem." This line really stuck out to me because I believe combating poverty should be a political issue but it is treated like a personal issue. So often we assume people are lazy, uneducated, on drugs, etc. and that is why they are poor, people fail to see the flaws and inequality of our economic system as a problem and until people can see that, I don't think anything will change. 

 

4. On page 51, Abramsky wrote “There is, after all, a reason Swedes...tolerate
far higher taxes than Americans do.” What does Abramsky mean by this?

       Americans complain a lot about their high taxes because it doesn't feel like they're going to help the citizens, around tax season you always hear, "what am I paying all these taxes for?" Yeah, we all know they're going towards schools and roads but they feel useless when your kid fails math and you have to get tires a season early cause you hit pot holes everyday. Where as in Sweden they reap the benefits of their taxes everyday, it makes sense to them because it actually improves their everyday lives. Most Americans don't believe their taxes benefit their lives.