$2.00 a Day: Living on Almost Nothing in America

“Deep on the South Side of Chicago, far from the ever-evolving steel skyline of America’s third-largest city, sits a small, story-and-a-half white clapboard house clad in peeling paint.” 

The part of Chicago that most Americans would visit is the downtown core, where there are skyscrapers and affluence. The opening sentence of the book contrasts this with a side of Chicago that most Americans will not encounter in their lives. In doing so, the authors emphasize how large the gap is between $2-a-day poverty and mainstream American society.

“Two dollars is less than the cost of a gallon of gas, roughly equivalent to that of a half gallon of milk. Many Americans have spent more than that before they get to work or school in the morning. Yet in 2011, more than 4 percent of all households with children in the world’s wealthiest nation were living in a poverty so deep that most Americans don’t believe it even exists in this country.” 

Edin and Shaefer provide some context for readers to understand just how poor these families are. Many Americans spend $2 without even thinking about it—it is an almost inconsequential amount of money for them. Not only is having to live on $2 per person, per day hard to imagine for many people, but they don’t realize it is a level of destitution that actually exists in the US. $2-a-day poverty is far removed from the everyday comforts that many Americans take for granted.

“Susan is sick of going hungry, sick of eating instant noodles morning, noon, and night. She’s tired of falling further and further behind on her bills, tired of being a freeloader in her own home.” 

Being so poor you can barely survive doesn’t just leave people with barely enough to eat, it also leaves them demoralized and emotionally exhausted. Poverty is difficult to escape and can leave people feeling trapped. Susan’s stories in particular exemplify the emotional baggage that comes with being destitute.