blog #3 JAsmine James

This book has made me look at my family and others around me in my community and recognize some of the problems. When I was reading this book I pointed out my community issues such as, how families are depending on pantries and thrift stores to feed and clothe their child. I look at how mothers are begging for free turkeys and hams and maybe groceries at churches and community centers during the holiday times so that they can feed their families. Foreclosure signs are all over the inner city and suburban communities. While reading this book I was able to look at my community and realize that there are a lot of people living in poverty and trying to make ends meet for their family. Just reading on these subjects gave me a better view on how poverty looks.

Throughout the book Abramsky made a lot of points on what poverty looks like and how to prevent it. In the text, Abramsky makes it clear that families across the nation struggle to afford housing and other necessities. Homes in certain states have mortgages that are far too much for the family to handle and keep up with. Abramsky writes about the many reason people fall into poverty whether it be sickness, job loss, or a crash in economy everyone has a different reason. According to the text, for example, Frank Nicci, lost his leg to an infection that was due to his diabetes. His wife and he only made $20,000 a year (Abramsky, 2013, p. 113). It is sad to see that many members of today's society struggle to make ends meet. It is sad that since he is injured his money is affected because he is out of work. It’s sad to see some struggle to make enough money to pay for housing and not enough to take care of their children with food and clothes.

I found this book very informative, another piece of information I found informative was the author thinking about ways to prevent poverty. According to the author there are four major revues sources that could prevent poverty: A public works fund to protect against mass unemployment; a new educational opportunity fund to dramatically expand access to, and affordability of, higher education; A poverty mitigation fund built up from the introduction of a financial transaction tax and energy profit taxes; and Money to stabilize Social Security and start reducing the national deficit, made available from higher taxes on capital gains, high end inheritances, and the income of the most affluent of wage earners. According to the author if we are to use revenue sources we could change our expectation of society and prevent some impoverished neighborhoods.