Help me understand life as a truly broke American
May 14, 2022 12:35 PM   Subscribe

I'm looking for books or resources that describe how Americans who are truly broke function from a financial perspective. This question stems from reading that, in my city, there are lots of people whose income (including sources like social security disability) is not sufficient to cover basic necessities like housing and food.

When money literally runs out--you have no additional income or prospect of income, there aren't more credit cards to max out, and you're so far underwater that getting your water cut off is a just another Tuesday--what then? I'm most interested in a sociological perspective rather than a biography, and I definitely am not looking for the Horatio Alger "this is how X person overcame the odds."
posted by philosophygeek to Work & Money (16 answers total) 26 users marked this as a favorite
 


$2.00 a Day is the one I'd pick if I were going to pick one.

Matthew Desmond's Evicted, Fielding-Singh's How the Other Half Eats, Goldblum and Shaddox's Broke in America, and Michael Harrington's classic The Other America are all worth reading.

And, although I don't think it's what you're looking for, I suppose I'd be remiss if I didn't mention Barbara Ehrenreich's Nickel and Dimed.
posted by box at 12:44 PM on May 14, 2022 [13 favorites]


I came to mention $2 a Day, which I think would answer your request for a sociological perspective. But its data is probably not reliable.
posted by Mr.Know-it-some at 12:50 PM on May 14, 2022 [1 favorite]


Andrea Elliot's Invisible Child is good.
posted by pinochiette at 1:17 PM on May 14, 2022 [1 favorite]


Nickel and Dimed.
posted by Winnie the Proust at 2:35 PM on May 14, 2022 [7 favorites]


Maid Also a limited series on Netflix
posted by space_cookie at 3:48 PM on May 14, 2022 [2 favorites]


Maid was also a book before it was a netflix series. The book shows the author falling through a series of cracks, and barely making ends meet; sometimes not at all. It's autobiographical, so more of a first person perspective than sociological.
posted by hydra77 at 4:58 PM on May 14, 2022 [3 favorites]


See Nancy Isenberg. She can help.
posted by firstdaffodils at 5:51 PM on May 14, 2022


If you're talking about people who are not from a well-established local community, the answer is they move back where they came from, or end up homeless if they can't do that.

If you're talking about people from an existing low-income community:

They have each other. Members of poor communities are very geographically immobile by middle-class American standards. Their communities have been in place for many decades. Someone who runs out of money has a density of immediate family, extended family and lifelong friends that doesn't really have an analog for middle-class people. One person with a reliable income and who owns their own home or is a tenured tenant in a big unit in public housing (lots of 3- and 4-bedrooms) can be an anchor or life-raft against the ravages of being totally broke for a lot of people.

They or family members willing to help them out have unreported income sources. The informal economy is huge in poor communities. People have all kinds of reasons not to report compensation they pay or receive. Lots of people run small businesses complete outside of the banking and tax systems.

They have richer people's tax dollars and charitable contributions. Poor communities, especially in big cities, are overlaid by a very dense network of government and charitable welfare services fairly invisible to middle class people, and are often administered by members of the of the community (see above) especially at the point of service. Doesn't provide a comfortable way to live, but it's pretty good helping people avoid starvation and sleeping out when even their family and friends can't quite there.
posted by MattD at 6:10 PM on May 14, 2022 [12 favorites]


i had to stop watching Maid. it was hurting my heart.
posted by j_curiouser at 6:44 PM on May 14, 2022 [1 favorite]


Nickel and Dimed is the classic book that covers just one rung above what you’re asking about.

I highly recommend it as a way to augment your search. The condition of having no money is very alien to most people, but the condition of living one sick day from falling into the abyss is more relatable and I think can help inform your understanding of that abyss.
posted by Tell Me No Lies at 7:38 PM on May 14, 2022 [2 favorites]


Busted: America's Poverty Tour by On the Media was a very good series.
posted by Ms. Moonlight at 12:36 AM on May 15, 2022


Seconding Invisible Child. It’s heart wrenching to read but absolutely worthwhile.
posted by stillmoving at 4:42 AM on May 15, 2022


Broke? When you have no income, the last thing you cling to is your rent. Second-last is your food but the rent aways eats first.

A 5lb bag of potatoes and 12 oz. of sharp cheddar as a week's groceries

A dozen ramen soups is less than $3.50.

Cook a cup of rice and when it's done add a can of black beans (89 cents) and a $3 jar of salsa if you can afford it.

How would that make you feel? How would that make you relate to your neighbors?
posted by bendy at 4:58 AM on May 15, 2022 [2 favorites]


Part of the reality of course is that sometimes people don’t function. There are people across the US dying of malnutrition or exposure regularly; or they die of “old age” much sooner - life expectancy in the US varies considerably between socioeconomic groups, unfortunately.

But a lot of the links above are good places to start reading about how people survive in the mean time. Lots of people in economically precarious situations don’t have a support network of other (even equally economically stretched) people, eg. a not insignificant chunk of family poverty is women and kids fleeing domestic abuse. But stability and security coming from other people rather than investments or jobs is, on average, a more common difference between middle class and poor. Overcrowding in housing is common (being unhoused is much more than just living on the street or in a shelter, especially in smaller urban areas or rural areas). (Moving frequently can go along with that, sometimes intentionally, leaving without paying last month’s rent or something, though more often an unwelcome side effect of financial instability). But there is also a whole tool set of survival skills that folks may develop (or learn from family/community - including, though this is definitely a minor subset of cases, punk zines about dumpster diving, various tips for getting around paying for public transportation, or tips on shoplifting) when income not meeting costs is a regular thing (which is part of why the ubiquitous budgeting skills workshops for low income folks are so obnoxious and condescending - thank you for asking and taking the time to learn what people do do to survive). Eg. most middle class and more economically secure people don’t know, offhand, where and when free meal services are in their town, or how to access local food bank services, but that would be part of the knowledge base of most folks living in poverty. Keeping assets (eg. a car) in a family members name so that you can qualify for income supports; not living with a romantic partner because then a non-disabled partner might juuuuust bump the family household income over some arbitrary (and unliveably low) threshold; urban car camping skills, knowing where is safe to park and sleep in a car overnight; etc.
posted by eviemath at 6:45 AM on May 15, 2022 [6 favorites]


MeFi's own jscalzi wrote a very illuminating piece called "Being Poor" after hurricane Katrina and all of the clueless privileged commentary. Explanation of why he wrote it.
posted by indexy at 1:51 PM on May 15, 2022 [2 favorites]


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