Customer Reviews

Ending Poverty in America: How to Restore the American Dream

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When I first saw the cover of this book, I thought it might be the usual book written by a candidate for office.

Instead, when I looked deeper I found a work containing articles by serious scholars and professionals who have studied the causes of poverty and inequality in the United States and who present credible solutions.

The book is edited by John Edwards, who has put together and excellent group of specialists on poverty representing a variety of disciplines ranging from law to social work and economics. This is a multidisciplinary look at a key issue often neglected by economists.

It is too bad that more of the ideas of John Edwards and the scholars writing this book will probably not become policy.

Yes, government programs are nice. But the purpose is defeated in the making. The government does not have any teachings to inspire the lower/middle class to achieve higher. The school systems continue to teach no financial lessons beyond basic math, instead focusing on separating children from real-life hard-work-to-achieve principles.

In the meanwhile, government takes larger percentages than churches request, spend more money for less benefits than their non-profit counterparts. Nonprofit programs are inspiring. Government programs are to be taken advantage of.

The government is NOT the answer. I know politicians are bred to want to use the government to do the best they can for the people, but the truth of the matter is we have let this go too far already, and many of these programs our poor rely on are ineffective, cost overmuch, and teach reliance upon "free fish". As America has the largest donating percentage in the world, we should allow and encourage true giving and back off on the government interference which seems to achieve nothing but a basic family breakdown and laziness among the poor.

One of my favorite quotes is: Give a man a fish, feed him for a day, teach a man to fish, feed him for the rest of his life.

Or even better: Ben Franklin said: "I am for doing good to the poor, but I differ in opinion of the means. I think the best way of doing good to the poor, is not making them easy in poverty, but leading or driving them out of it. In my youth I traveled much, and I observed in different countries, that the more public provisions were made for the poor, the less they provided for themselves, and of course became poorer. And, on the contrary, the less was done for them, the more they did for themselves, and became richer."

I recently purchased Ending Poverty for a paper i had to write and it came in as a great resource for my research on Poverty. The book includes graphs and numerous statistics along with John Edwards imput on various aspects of poverty, making it an excellent resource for not only my college paper, but most surely for others. As far as reading goes, I wasn't able to finish it due to a deadline but what i had read was a little bland, very straight-to-the point in terms of connecting numbers with Edwards' thoughts on what they mean to him. Again, a great book for resource, but probably not one i would stalk bookstores to read for pleasure.