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$2.00 a Day
$2.00 a Day: Living on Almost Nothing in America | Kathryn J. Edin, H. Luke Shaefer
A revelatory account of poverty in America so deep that we, as a country, don’t think it exists Jessica Compton’s family of four would have no cash income unless she donated plasma twice a week at her local donation center in Tennessee. Modonna Harris and her teenage daughter Brianna in Chicago often have no food but spoiled milk on weekends. After two decades of brilliant research on American poverty, Kathryn Edin noticed something she hadn’t seen since the mid-1990s — households surviving on virtually no income. Edin teamed with Luke Shaefer, an expert on calculating incomes of the poor, to discover that the number of American families living on $2.00 per person, per day, has skyrocketed to 1.5 million American households, including about 3 million children. Where do these families live? How did they get so desperately poor? Edin has “turned sociology upside down” (Mother Jones) with her procurement of rich — and truthful — interviews. Through the book’s many compelling profiles, moving and startling answers emerge. The authors illuminate a troubling trend: a low-wage labor market that increasingly fails to deliver a living wage, and a growing but hidden landscape of survival strategies among America’s extreme poor. More than a powerful exposé, $2.00 a Day delivers new evidence and new ideas to our national debate on income inequality.
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ManyWordsLater
$2.00 a Day: Living on Almost Nothing in America | Kathryn J. Edin, H. Luke Shaefer
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Pickpick

This book might be nine years old. But we know that the numbers and general trend line of poverty has not changed significantly since then. In fact, I wonder what the Dobbs ruling has done to exacerbate many of the issues outlines in this book.

51 likes1 comment
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keithlafo
$2.00 a Day: Living on Almost Nothing in America | Kathryn J. Edin, H. Luke Shaefer
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Pickpick

A sad book. Informative, yes, but the human stories are what make the facts and figures and stats stand out as more than just numbers on a page. It‘s also sad that this issue has only gotten worse after the pandemic.

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Brooke_H
$2.00 a Day: Living on Almost Nothing in America | Kathryn J. Edin, H. Luke Shaefer
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Mehso-so

Interesting and sad. The book focuses on several families around the US who subsist mostly on SNAP, and the lengths they have to go to just to survive. The book is five years old now, and it would be interesting to read an update. I suspect some of the solutions the authors present are outdated. But the horrifying personal stories will stick with me.

(quarantine book #77; read a book featuring economics)

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KTitone14
$2.00 a Day: Living on Almost Nothing in America | Kathryn J. Edin, H. Luke Shaefer
Pickpick

Sad but good.

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peacegypsy
$2.00 a Day: Living on Almost Nothing in America | Kathryn J. Edin, H. Luke Shaefer
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The poverty problems in the country merit our attention. It‘s true horror reading, but I always want to learn as much as I can.

AmyG I can‘t imagine. 😪 7y
39 likes6 stack adds1 comment
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jpmcwisemorgan
$2.00 a Day: Living on Almost Nothing in America | Kathryn J. Edin, H. Luke Shaefer
Pickpick

This is short and to the point, and incredibly depressing. We should not have people living like this anywhere in the US. I think, as a country, we are so out of touch with what really happens in our own country. I grew up in rural Missouri and I know there were times we had very little - something I realize now more as an adult with a better understanding of how things work. We can do better, and we should.

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PacingTheCage
$2.00 a Day: Living on Almost Nothing in America | Kathryn J. Edin, H. Luke Shaefer
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#litsypartyofone Friday night reading and a glass of wine. Pug remains under the #gryffindor blanket.

11 likes1 stack add
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PacingTheCage
$2.00 a Day: Living on Almost Nothing in America | Kathryn J. Edin, H. Luke Shaefer
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Trying to get @bookriot Read Harder Book club started is hard work. Harder than the challenges I do believe.
Meetup of one again. At least there's good beer #oakanddagger

Songsofhome Brave! 8y
1 like1 comment
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GoneFishing
$2.00 a Day: Living on Almost Nothing in America | Kathryn J. Edin, H. Luke Shaefer

Two dollars is less than the cost of a gallon of gas, roughly equivalent to that of a half gallon of milk. Many Americans have spent more than that before they get to work or school in the morning. Yet in 2011, more than 4 percent of all households with children in the world‘s wealthiest nation were living in a poverty so deep that most Americans don‘t believe it even exists in this country.

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Cathyreb
$2.00 a Day: Living on Almost Nothing in America | Kathryn J. Edin, H. Luke Shaefer

Gives me a new perspective on poverty such as Nickeled and Dimed made me look at all the people that make my life easier that are never thanked and appreciated

2 likes2 stack adds
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Rbkh42
$2.00 a Day: Living on Almost Nothing in America | Kathryn J. Edin, H. Luke Shaefer
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Bookletting
$2.00 a Day: Living on Almost Nothing in America | Kathryn J. Edin, H. Luke Shaefer
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Another reread for discussion - such a great book' Well-written & informative, and the personal stories are incredible.

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megt
$2.00 a Day: Living on Almost Nothing in America | Kathryn J. Edin, H. Luke Shaefer
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Pickpick

Compelling research and interviews. I feel like there could have been more expansion on the general thesis and some clean up on transitions from stories to statistics, but the foundation is there. Maybe best read in conjunction with Matthew Desmond's Evicted.

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Hooked_on_books
$2.00 a Day: Living on Almost Nothing in America | Kathryn J. Edin, H. Luke Shaefer
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Mehso-so

This book has some interesting information and compelling stories, but suffers from average writing and a lack of editing. It could have been so much more.

3 likes2 stack adds