I'm Anthony Brooks and for Magnetokrabardi and this is on point.

Matthew Desmond is holding up a mirror to the American people.

He writes, this is who we are, the richest country on earth with more poverty than any other

advanced democracy.

Desmond's new book is called Poverty by America.

And it's not aimed at those living in poverty but at the rest of us, the many Americans

who benefit from perpetuating poverty.

That's right.

Desmond argues there's so much poverty in America not to spite our great wealth but because

of it.

His book is an anti-poverty manifesto that asks those of us who are lucky, the secure,

the insured, the housed, the college educated, the protected, to understand how we are complicit

in all this needless suffering and what we can do to end it.

Desmond is a professor of sociology at Princeton University and author of four books including

the Pulitzer Prize winning evicted poverty and profit in the American city.

His new book is entitled Poverty by America and he joins us now from Princeton, New Jersey.

Matthew Desmond, welcome back to On Point.

It's a great pleasure to have you and thank you for this important book.

Thank you Anthony for having me.

Yeah, it's a real pleasure.

The big question that haunted you, that inspired you to write this book is why there is so much

poverty in this rich, rich nation.

...