Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City is a vivid account of the lives of Milwaukee families due to the struggle of paying their housing bills. The author brings strenuous sociological research and ethnography about the inner city of Milwaukee. Mathew Desmond tracks eight families in the town with a view of exploring the impact of poverty in the families. Although people should not spend more than a third of their income paying rent, the Milwaukee practice is contrary to the system expectations. Tenants, their poverty levels notwithstanding, are using 80 percent of their meager earnings on rent.
Poverty has diverse social implication on the victims and tend to have ling-term implications. A majority of those struggling in Milwaukee was born from low-income families. They sprung from areas of poverty since their childhood. Their brains were complexly wired by scarcity, and their expectations and coping skills structured by insufficiency. Sharing the little they have is part and parcel of their daily challenges. For instance, Patricia children share a mattress. Thoughtfully, with these children wired to cope by sharing rather than enjoying the comfort of having it all would rarely focus on gratification. They would only grow knowing life is about seeking the little that could be realized and sharing instead of looking for more to meet each individual expectation for family members. The traditional society set them to fail in life despite the struggles they undertake in pursuit of a different experience. Most of them turn to self-consolation, an issue that drives them into reckless behavior. Surprisingly, despite the hallowing poverty levels, the poor turn to alcohol and substance abuse. Eventually, addiction leads them to deeper poverty levels.
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In his book Evicted, Desmond details the picture of an individual as well as the prevailing systemic failure in Milwaukee. Desmond provides a precise understanding of the perplexing economic exploitation and poverty. The filthy and risky conditions discussed in the book are deeply horrifying. For instance, the “Catch-22” describing intricately challenging experiences, including debts, penalties, and fines, are depressing in the face of the citizens’ expectations for a better life in the United States. Being poor is highly expensive, as shown by the credit card debt, partial rent payment accumulation, penalties in the event of late payment, and fines charged on a diving misdemeanor.
While the book is interesting to read, the issues discussed are disheartening. However, they create a clear picture of the systemically concealed experiences of the American people. For example, Desmond exposes the sheer number yet many broken, damaged and addicted people without any hope of surviving in the long run. Although it is possible to sympathize with the interests of the slumlords not to be cheated, ripped off, or taken advantage of by the tenants, their predatory behavior is profoundly dreadful. The book implies that the landlords are more concerned with their welfare with little regard for the lives of their tenants. On the other hand, it demonstrates systemic failure in the part of the government whose principal mandate includes ensuring its citizens access basic needs, including shelter.
Evicted shows fresh lessons that the Americans could explore in solving the devastating problem about their lives in the United States. There are no short cuts in life, but people have to struggle to meet their expectations. On the contrary, the vicious cycle of poverty would catch up with them, and their experiences would be deeply upsetting. Indeed, there is no room for mistakes, especially for those with paltry resources at their disposal. These people are not cushioned from any faults since their earnings cannot secure their happy life in the long term. In this case, they live for today but with the hope that the future would take care of itself.
The book contains various scenes that demonstrate the importance of multiple aspects of the progress and sustainability of families. It has remarkable extracts of hope and loss that remind people of the significance of centrality in their homes, without which it is impossible to attain anything. In light of the clear illustrations in the book and the devastating account of the experiences of the Milwaukee poor people, the Evicted is a necessary book. It is an eye-opener to the depressing and harrowing challenges, American citizens and other immigrants face in the pursuit of basic needs. The shame of systemic failure cannot be concealed any further. It is clear that, although both tenants and landlords could be having predatory behavior against each other, the government has failed in its roles as the core protector of its citizens. People are languishing in poverty, but they are still exploited economically by the system.
The voluminous footnotes could be scary to many readers. However, they could be more valuable than petrifying because many of them are elaborations or commentary on the personal details or account of the Milwaukee poor people. Reasonably, it lends context and explanation of Desmond’s sources, as well as writing style. Towards the end, Desmond discusses “About the Project.” This part is dedicated to detailing the history, goals, and structure of the book. Considerably, this section could have been the starting chapter in the book. On a different note, while it exposes distressing experiences and system failure, the Evicted might be construed to reinforce the historic stereotyping about America’s poor people. Overall, the book is a good read for anyone interested in learning and understanding the struggles of the less fortunate Americans and the systemic failure in the country.
References
Desmond, M. (2017). Evicted: Poverty and profit in the American city. Ney York, NY: Crown Publishers.
