The central question of the book is simple but radical: Why does the richest country on Earth have so much poverty?

Desmond’s answer is equally bold: Because so many of us benefit from it.

Not in obvious ways—not by cheering it on—but through the structures we live in, the tax breaks we receive, the wages we pay, and the policies we support or ignore. Poverty, he argues, is not accidental. It's produced and maintained.

In his book In Search of Respect, anthropologist Philippe Bourgois shares the story of Primo, a young man in East Harlem who wants to do things “the right way.” He wants a steady job. He tries. Again and again. But he hits walls.