Poverty in America: Terrible Scourge or a Measurement Error?

Perhaps the biggest evidence that capitalism in America doesn’t work, at least not for everyone, is growing income inequality and the persistence of poverty. But what is the current state of poverty and inequality in the United States? Why do debates still persist about whether poverty has been eradicated? What do the numbers and official statistics tell us, and should we believe them? What do personal stories and experiences with poverty tell us that data cannot? If poverty has indeed been eradicated, what led to that achievement - and if it still persists, what more can be done to abolish it?
Last year on this podcast, we did a series about this topic, and we found these episodes to be surprising and more informative than most of the debates about poverty you’ll hear on the news. So, we wanted to condense that series down into a single episode that captures all of the highlights. The first speaker is former U.S. Senator Phil Gramm (R-TX), who argues in his recent book, "The Myth of American Inequality," that poverty is vastly overstated because official government data does not include transfer payments. The second is Princeton sociologist and Pulitzer Prize-winning author Matthew Desmond, who argues in his recent book, "Poverty, by America," that poverty is a terrible scourge, that we have made no progress, and that it is a moral outrage.
The result is a nuanced, surprising, and informative debate on a multifaceted but important issue - leaving our hosts, as well as, by extension, our listeners - to formulate their own takeaways on what we can all do about them.
Episode notes:
• Listen to the complete conversation (www.capitalisnt.com/episodes/...) with Sen. Phil Gramm
• Listen to the complete conversation (www.capitalisnt.com/episodes/...) with Dr. Matthew Desmond

[@mammajamma773]

It took a lot of patience to get through the first speaker's commentary but thankfully at minute 20:15 Bethany and Luigi summed up what I was thinking. The second half made a more successful point - that the way we measure poverty is not completely accurate. Not that poverty doesn't exist (which the title of this video implies) but that it is not measured accurately.

[@AhjosuCas]

It’s a tad ironic that one of his talking points is equality of education as an ex-representative from Texas. When public education in Texas is at a decline due to things such as private education vouchers from his own party. I do wish that people shared his viewpoints on identifying where the government can step in to help people in efficient areas, sadly the Republican Party is rooted in relieving these programs. Wanted to add that I appreciate the neutrality that you two provide in these circumstances and the pragmatic point of view the podcast always strives for. It’s very refreshing in a climate which is pervasively biased by some fashion. Bravo to you both. (And the teams that back you)