Desiree Utz- Blog 3

            This is where the book get so good, in my opinion. I like that Abramsky is less focused on the reasons the government has failed the poor and how in the last few chapters he shares his thoughts and findings about how he believes the government can help. Abramsky's solutions really made sense to me. For example, he suggests that "change would happen at the local level first; we would have to figure out how to disband really bad structures, and then build new institutions." I think this is true. Based on the last two readings we know that our current safety net programs are not cutting it. So it is time to fix something that is broken.
            How should we move towards the future and towards narrowing the gap? As Abramsky proposes we need to make "down payments on the future", take preventative or rehabilitative measures to help people struggling with addictions and mental illness, care for the sick, work to reform our prisons, invest in education. One idea would be to make worker cooperatives, communally owned homes, and build stores that people could use their EBT to buy consumer goods. I think this is an idea that is both simple and rational. Another idea would be to "set an annual income floor between $6,000 and $7,000 per year to every man, woman, and child in the country." I think this is change that we would all happily welcome. However, it has a greater impact than being an allowance, it would work towards eliminating deep poverty. The final thought that I gathered from this reading is that if we work like the people in Detroit and create agencies of participation we might be able to achieve change even quicker than expected. The people of Detroit each have a role to play in their community and they each realize that by helping their neighbors, they are helping themselves. Being without jobs and without your needs being recognized by the state the people of Detroit looked to each other as being their number one resource and chance to survive.
             If I could pose one question to my classmates it would be: If you were asked to come up with a solution to end poverty what would it be? Give an in-depth explanation.