$2.00 a Day: Living on Almost Nothing in America

Jessica and Travis Compton live in Johnson City, Tennessee, with their two young daughters. Travis completed a program that provided him with vocational training and a GED, but the only work he’s been able to find are temporary minimum-wage positions. He is currently unemployed after McDonald’s cut his hours to zero a few months ago. Jessica sells plasma up to 10 times per month, earning $30 each time. The procedure takes over an hour and makes her feel fatigued, but the donations provide them with some much-needed cash.

The $2-a-day poor rely on a number of strategies to survive, including receiving assistance from private charities, generating income in any way they can, and finding ways to scrape by with what they have. Private charities are an important source of assistance for the poor, but the aid is almost always in the form of goods and services rather than cash. Although food pantries and free health exams can be very beneficial to those who need them, they provide “only an incomplete patchwork of aid, with numerous holes” (105).

Many of the families in this book get cash by selling whatever they can. Selling plasma is a relatively common strategy, while selling sex is a somewhat less common one.