Private opulence, public squalor: How the U.S. helps the rich and hurts the poor

'Poverty, by America' author Matthew Desmond, says if the top 1% of Americans paid the taxes they owed, it would raise $175 billion each year: 'That is just about enough to pull everyone out of poverty.'

... These were really robust interventions into the lives of the poorest families in America. They made food aid permanent. They expanded Social Security. There were so many elderly Americans dying penniless before the war on poverty and the Great Society. And there was this massive gain in pulling older folks out of poverty. ...

And it's also important to realize that when those programs [were] rolled out, Congress looked a lot like Congress does now. It was polarized. It was obstructionary. The Southern Democrats were aligning with Republicans to block progressive reform. And even in that situation — a situation that looks a lot like Washington today — these incredible reforms were passed.

If you look at the amount of money we spent on homeowner tax subsidies, like the mortgage interest deduction, that's aroundWell, how much have we dedicated to housing assistance for low-income families? About $50 billion a year. So it's just a colossal difference. And, you know, if we didn't have so many evictions and so many families paying 50, 60, 70% of their income on rent today, maybe we could live with that inequality.

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