Diapers Power and Poverty
Broke in America; Seeing, Understanding, and Ending U.S. Poverty, Joanne Samuel Goldblum and Colleen Shaddox, 2021
This book provides a road map to a better America, Jeffrey Sachs
Well organized book is a clear explanation of why poverty is a systemic failure, a result of decades of intentional bad policy decisions in the U.S.
Part 1 Basic Needs covers chapters on Water: Running Dry; Food: Hungry in America; Housing: No Place to be Poor; Power: Shut Off; Transportation: Access Denied; Hygiene; A Problem Swept under the rug; Health: Health does not equal Health Care.
Part 2 discusses the many forms of oppression -covers chapters on Racism: Stealing Homes; Sexism: Women’s Work; Denial of Political Power: Government Not of, by or for the people; Mental Health Discrimination: Poverty is Trauma; High-Poverty Schools: Class Matters.
Part 3 Discusses solutions: Possibilities: The Poor Don’t Need to be with you Always; and Advocacy: Making Change.
Stacks of diapers and dollars isolated on a white background.
Author Goldblum illustrates the power of organizing, creating The National Diaper Bank Network, which has given out more than two hundred million diapers since it started. Diaper cost for the poor illustrates the often hidden problems that government is failing to address with its botched policies.
But ultimately, poverty is a problem that can be easily and quickly solved, but only by government taking bold action. The best thing is that solving poverty would have enormous positive economic consequences for the country as a whole. Our collective political stupidity in failing to properly address poverty is mind boggling.