Ben Waber reviewed Poverty, by America by Matthew Desmond
A Surprisingly Average Commentary
3 stars
Evicted this is not. Rather than leaning into his sociological wheelhouse, Desmond instead has penned what is essentially a 300 page opinion piece. There are of course some very good ideas in here, but the lack of expertise around economics is palpable - claiming that the China Shock was intentionally undertaken to increase inequality, for example, is willfully ignorant at best, and academic malpractice at worst. For people interested in this topic I'd encourage people to read nearly anything by Piketty, Automating Inequality by Eubanks, When Affirmative Action Was White by Katznelson, or Growth by Susskind.
Evicted this is not. Rather than leaning into his sociological wheelhouse, Desmond instead has penned what is essentially a 300 page opinion piece. There are of course some very good ideas in here, but the lack of expertise around economics is palpable - claiming that the China Shock was intentionally undertaken to increase inequality, for example, is willfully ignorant at best, and academic malpractice at worst. For people interested in this topic I'd encourage people to read nearly anything by Piketty, Automating Inequality by Eubanks, When Affirmative Action Was White by Katznelson, or Growth by Susskind.
