$2 a Day: Living on Almost Nothing in Amercia
Posted: Mon Dec 31, 2018 2:34 pm
I've been fascinated by the concept of poverty lately. The more I read about it, the more I realize it's not often about income per say. It's about a lack of all forms of capital: financial, social, and others. This book records the lives of families who live on $2 a day or less in the US and the strategies they use to survive. It's a fascinating read, and I highly recommend it for anyone who wants to learn more about the topic of extreme poverty.
It's also fascinating from an ERE perspective because you see how both mindset and dysfunctional family/friends contribute to poverty. For example, the book opens with a group of people living in a decrepit house with a running, empty fridge with nothing inside but a spoiled gallon of milk. It would certainly benefit this family to unplug the fridge to save electricity or to buy something more nutritional than milk, and yet they don't. Their sole source of food comes from two shared SNAP cards they're using to feed four people. They also catalog families in houses without running water.
An ERE approach to this problem (unplug the fridge, buy dried goods) isn't considered by most of the people in this book because they're essentially living under a constant state of duress.
So if you're ever curious about the difference between the low spend of ERE and the low spend of poverty, I highly recommend this book. It's been eye opening to me about the real conditions of poverty in the US.
It's also fascinating from an ERE perspective because you see how both mindset and dysfunctional family/friends contribute to poverty. For example, the book opens with a group of people living in a decrepit house with a running, empty fridge with nothing inside but a spoiled gallon of milk. It would certainly benefit this family to unplug the fridge to save electricity or to buy something more nutritional than milk, and yet they don't. Their sole source of food comes from two shared SNAP cards they're using to feed four people. They also catalog families in houses without running water.
An ERE approach to this problem (unplug the fridge, buy dried goods) isn't considered by most of the people in this book because they're essentially living under a constant state of duress.
So if you're ever curious about the difference between the low spend of ERE and the low spend of poverty, I highly recommend this book. It's been eye opening to me about the real conditions of poverty in the US.