$2.00 a Day: Living on Almost Nothing in America

Kathryn J. Edin, H. Luke Shaefer

Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 2015

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Summary

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Introduction-Chapter 1

Chapters 2-3

Chapters 4-5

Conclusion

Key Figures

Themes

Index of Terms

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

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Discussion Questions

Themes

Hope, Hopelessness, and the Emotional Impact of Being Poor

Living in poverty, especially extreme poverty, is never just about financial hardship. The authors investigate several consequences of poverty throughout the book, including how it affects a person physically and socially, but one of the most salient themes is the emotional impact of being destitute. In sharing these families’ stories, the authors also share many of the turbulent emotions they feel. The beginning of the book shows that there is a distinct aura of hopelessness that saturates the lives of those living in $2-a-day poverty, and this is something the authors remark on in the Introduction:

These families didn’t just have too little cash to survive on, as was true for the welfare recipients Edin and Lein had met in the early 1990s. They often had no cash at all. And the absence of cash permeated every aspect of their lives. It seemed as though not only cash was missing, but hope as well (xv).

It quickly becomes apparent how a lack of cash can also result in a lack of hope. The families in this book are not in $2-a-day poverty because they don’t try to improve their lives. On the contrary, they work hard to get jobs, keep their jobs, and provide their loved ones with basic necessities. But their efforts are met with failure again and again. Susan tries hard to find work, even showing up to an interview dripping in sweat when she got lost on the way. She cries each time she is rejected and has developed anxiety about completing job applications. She can’t bear the thought of applying for welfare due to her fear of being rejected yet again. Tabitha’s brothers and sisters cry and wish for death due to the gnawing hunger they can’t seem to escape. They struggle to find motivation to put any effort into their schoolwork.

Many of them also feel shame about their situation. Jennifer frequently visited the public library with her children, but to get library cards she would have to tell the staff that her family was staying at a homeless shelter, and she couldn’t bring herself to do that. Tabitha recalls being embarrassed as a child because she didn’t want anyone else to know she only had one outfit to wear. When Rae finally swallowed her pride and tried to apply for TANF at the welfare office, she was turned away and told there just wasn’t enough money to go around.

Despite the dire circumstances these families live in, there is also a palpable sense of hope. The authors asked Jennifer and Rae what they hope for in their lives. Jennifer wishes for a decent job making $13 an hour—with that, she believes she can afford an apartment in a safe neighborhood and a used car. Rae dreams of having her own place and giving her daughter a bedroom decorated with her favorite character, Dora the Explorer. Their answers show how modest their aspirations are but also that they do dream of a better future. Paul approaches life with determination rather than a sense of defeat over what he has lost. He takes advantage of any resources to make the best of his circumstances.

At the very end of the book, the authors take a moment to depict some of the happier moments in these families’ lives. They show Rae’s daughter picking a clover for her mom, and Modonna and Brianna enjoying each other’s company. Paul’s grandchildren excitedly talk about the books they read at the library, while Susan and Devin watch their daughter with joy. Despite the emotional struggle of being destitute, none of these families are completely without hope or happiness. Hope and hopelessness exist side by side.

Inequality of Opportunity

Welfare was hated and demonized in the US because it went against the American mentality that people need to work hard and pull themselves up by their own bootstraps. Welfare seemed to kill people’s motivation to be self-sufficient and instead rewarded them while they leeched off of the hardworking taxpayer. The families in this book show the same work ethic as any other American. They want to be employed, they take their work seriously, and they dislike the idea of receiving anything that they feel they haven’t earned. Yet they keep failing to pull themselves up. They fail to find jobs, they fail to find stable housing, and even when they start to rise up, they tend to fall back down.

Why, despite their hard work, do they keep failing while other Americans succeed? There is a problematic assumption underlying the bootstrap mentality that everyone has an equal opportunity to achieve things in life. Some believe that through hard work, anyone can succeed—and if someone hasn’t succeeded, then it’s because they haven’t worked hard enough. As is shown throughout the book, the poor do not have the same opportunities as the people further up the socioeconomic ladder. They have a harder time applying for jobs because they lack computers, or an address, or a phone number. They have a harder time holding down a job because they’re more likely to suffer from physical and mental health problems, because they are treated poorly at the jobs they manage to find, or because they have less reliable access to transportation. They have a harder time earning an education because they don’t have enough money to pay for it, because they’re too busy trying to find a job to survive, or because they’re suffering from hunger, instability, and trauma. They are not given the same opportunities to get ahead because the cards are stacked against them every step of the way.

All of the families in this book face a steep uphill battle in life because of their financial insecurity, but some face even more difficulties because of their race. Black and Latino job applicants have a significantly harder time getting a job than white applicants—even when they have the exact same qualifications—meaning the cards are stacked even higher against people like Susan and Jennifer. In the town of Percy in the Mississippi Delta, black residents are virtually forced to rent decrepit shacks from a white man named Mr. Salvatore, who owns the vast majority of the town. Nearby, the white store owners Mr. and Mrs. Valentine sometimes steal from their customers’ SNAP cards. Black residents have little choice but to go there anyway since it is the only store in town. While most Americans share a strong work ethic, there are some who possess more power and more opportunities than others.

The Cycle of Poverty

The poorest members of society lack the resources to pull themselves out of poverty—and because they are poor and have more limited opportunities in life, they cannot easily obtain those resources. Falling into poverty means falling into a cycle that is difficult to escape without significant help. The welfare system used to be a resource that could potentially break this cycle, but there is no longer a cash safety net to catch people from spiraling downward.

All the families in this book have children, and those children will likely inherit their parents’ poverty. They experience the consequences of being destitute just as much as their parents do, and those consequences make it harder for them to succeed at school and work as they grow up. Their parents struggle to provide them with basic necessities, such as clothing, school supplies, and nutritious food (or any food at all). Private charities and government benefits can help provide for some of their needs, but their childhood is still marked by deprivation.

The parents suffer from instability, poor work environments, health problems, and other issues due to their poverty, and these problems will inevitably affect the children as well. When Jennifer was forced to work 70 hours a week, her children developed behavioral problems because they were upset that they never saw their mother. Rae has experienced more physical and mental suffering than most Americans can even imagine, and the authors claim this will likely impact her daughter’s future:

Rae wants to do her absolute best to protect Azara. But the circumstances she finds herself in put her little four-year-old at immense risk. Trauma and the reverberations of toxic stress ripple through generations, from parent to child, sometimes even grandparent to parent to child. Rae’s past has boxed in Azara’s life chances, which in turn may impinge on those of her own children (89).

Children also experience adversities of their own. Some of the children in this book suffer from physical health problems, such as asthma and malnutrition. Many of them have also had traumatic experiences, such as sexual assault, and mental health problems, such as psychosis and suicidal ideation. They have been forced by their circumstances into doing things they don’t want to, such as selling sex for money. They suffer from housing insecurity and the general instability in their lives. These problems will follow them for the rest of their lives. Just as with their parents, these experiences make it more likely that they will stay impoverished.