San Diego Liberal Bookworms

Poverty, by America, 2023
Mathew Desmond
283 pages
City library: 7 copies available, ebook and audiobooks available; County library, 4 available

Several years ago the book club read this author's Evicted, which convincingly showed how housing laws and private landlords played an outsized and cruel role in keeping poor families poor and stuck. This is apparently an expanded argument about how we as a nation, through our laws, policies and norms, systematically keep people in poverty, and what we need to change to do better.

Publisher's summary:

The Pulitzer Prize-winning, bestselling author of Evicted reimagines the debate on poverty, making a new and bracing argument about why it persists in America: because the rest of us benefit from it. The United States, the richest country on earth, has more poverty than any other advanced democracy. Why? Why does this land of plenty allow one in every eight of its children to go without basic necessities, permit scores of its citizens to live and die on the streets, and authorize its corporations to pay poverty wages? In this landmark book, acclaimed sociologist Matthew Desmond draws on history, research, and original reporting to show how affluent Americans knowingly and unknowingly keep poor people poor. Those of us who are financially secure exploit the poor, driving down their wages while forcing them to overpay for housing and access to cash and credit. We prioritize the subsidization of our wealth over the alleviation of poverty, designing a welfare state that gives the most to those who need the least. And we stockpile opportunity in exclusive communities, creating zones of concentrated riches alongside those of concentrated despair. Some lives are made small so that others may grow. Elegantly written and fiercely argued, this compassionate book gives us new ways of thinking about a morally urgent problem. It also helps us imagine solutions. Desmond builds a startlingly original and ambitious case for ending poverty. He calls on us all to become poverty abolitionists, engaged in a politics of collective belonging to usher in a new age of shared prosperity and, at last, true freedom"--

The Chaos Machine: The Inside Story of How Social Media Rewired Our Minds and Our World
Max Fisher, 2022
389 Pages
City Library, 13 copies, 5 available, audiobook available; County Library, 6 available, e-book available.

I guess it's pretty well known at this point the outsized influence social media plays in rewiring and calcifying brains--and then that leads to Donald Trump being president and other terrible things. However, I don't recall us reading a specific title about social media and its ills--though the recent QAnon title certainly was an extended case in point. Anyhow, this examination is topical and should make for an interesting discussion, given the upcoming election ...

From Kirkus Reviews:

https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/max-fisher/the-chaos-machine-social-media/

A veteran journalist examines the rise of the social media giants and the dangers they have created for our society.
Fisher, a columnist and international reporter for the New York Times, dives into the chaotic social media landscape, synthesizing dozens of interviews from a wide range of sources. Focusing primarily on Facebook, the author walks through the key steps in the progress of the technology, seeing the advent of algorithms as a turning point. By tracking the sites that consumers visit, algorithms allowed for precise targeting for future contact. The best-performing sites gave users a sense of belonging, usually by denigrating “outsiders.” Over time, the result was increasing social and political polarization, with debate and discourse replaced by attacks that could easily spill into the offline world. Fisher is spot-on when he describes how the promotion and manufacture of moral outrage were not glitches in the system but inherent features. Senior leaders at Facebook received countless warnings about potential problem areas; claiming that they would address them, they never did. The company had rules to exclude certain posts, but they were inconsistent, vague, and overly complex (more than 1,400 pages). The author capably explains the many complex elements involved, but his liberal perspective is occasionally too evident. The mere mention of Donald Trump often makes him splutter with indignation. He has much to say about right-wing groups but little about those on the left. Nonetheless, Fisher is a diligent reporter, and when he maintains his focus on the mechanics of social media, he makes numerous important points. He even suggests that social media has become so counterproductive that we should consider shutting down the big firms—he aptly cites the murderous computer HAL in Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey—or at least forcing a thorough restructuring process. It’s a sensible idea worth discussing, but given the power of big tech, it’s unlikely to happen.
An often riveting, disturbing examination of the social media labyrinth and the companies that created it.