Poverty In America

A liberal government, when functioning properly, provides an environment where all citizens are equipped with abundant opportunities for wealth and success. Theoretically, it is the closest thing to a meritocracy of any current political-economic system. Liberalism is characterized by a free market, unburdened from what it views as counterproductive government meddling, consequently serving as a space for a nation's brightest and best to thrive. However, as Matthew Desmond argues in Poverty by America, liberalism in the United States has utterly failed the nation’s poor, as it is now defined by an exploitative upper class, a mostly stagnant middle class, and a lower class that sits out and watches from the slums, which is to say the antithesis …show more content…
Matthew Desmonds highlights that “America's welfare state (as a share of its gross domestic product) is the second largest in the world, after France’s,” which seems. wrong (Desmond 91). Most Americans are rightfully puzzled by this, which is likely due to both the inefficiency and perhaps unjust allocation of their tax dollars. The rate of poverty in America is among the highest in any developed nation, too. What Desmond points out, is that it is we, the prosperous middle and–especially–upper classes of society, that actually receive the majority of these tax dollars. Generous student loans and mortgage subsidies are the culprits, and benefits for these only increase for those with the most expensive loans. The reality, then, is that an American welfare state exists, just not for the poor. To make matters stranger, tax breaks and tax avoidance are rampant among the nation’s richest. Desmond notes that “roughly half of the 13 largest individual tax breaks accrue to the richest families, those with income in the top 20 percent” (Desmond …show more content…
The. The issue is that the rich lobby against taxes and for more favorable breaks under the guise of liberalism, claiming that reduced taxation and government interference serve the public interest as well as their own. They manipulate the already comfortable public, convincing them that they are fine without government support and that the poor need to simply pull themselves up by their bootstraps, just as they did, all the while these changes work exceedingly in favor of the rich. Liberalism has drilled into the American mind that “public goods should be located only in critical areas such as defense and education to prevent free-riding (that is to say, benefiting from a good without paying for it) and to encourage individual responsibility,” which is why the populace pushes back so much, almost mindlessly, when approached with budgeting for the poor and needy (O’Neill 112). They are not even aware of their hypocrisy, which is precisely what those in power want. More for those who already have it and less for those who truly need it, keeping the poor firmly planted at the bottom. That is the reality of the taxation system in America. Lastly, liberalism has led to an American population that is selfish and self-interested, insulated from the plight of the poor and uninterested in

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