Disposable Audiobook By Sarah Jones cover art

Disposable

America's Contempt for the Underclass

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Disposable

By: Sarah Jones
Narrated by: Sarah Mollo-Christensen
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In this “barn burner of a book” (The New York Times Book Review) New York magazine senior writer Sarah Jones blends personal stories and in-depth reporting to expose the harsh reality of America’s culture of inequality and the devastating impact of the pandemic on our nation’s most vulnerable people.

In the tradition of Matthew Desmond’s Evicted and Andrea Elliot’s Invisible Child, Disposable is a poignant exploration of America’s underclass, left vulnerable by systemic racism and capitalism. Here, Sarah Jones delves into the lives of the essential workers, seniors, and people with disabilities who were disproportionately affected by COVID-19—not due to their age or profession, but because of the systemic inequality and poverty that left them exposed.

The pandemic served as a stark revelation of the true state of America, a country where the dream of prosperity is a distant mirage for millions. Jones argues that the pandemic didn’t create these dynamics but rather revealed the existing social mobility issues and wealth gap that have long plagued the nation. Behind the staggering death toll are stories of lives lost, injustices suffered, and institutions that failed to protect their people.

Jones brings these stories to the forefront, transforming the abstract concept of the pandemic into a deeply personal and political phenomenon. Her book “stands as a reminder of the lessons our country has willfully ignored—an especially stark one with Donald Trump back in the White House and further shredding the social safety net” (The Washington Post). Politics & Government Economic Inequality Social Sociology Public Policy United States Americas

Critic reviews

"Sarah Mollo–Christensen performs with clear diction and a serious tone that fits this investigative reporting. Social rights journalist Sarah Jones uses personal narratives and tireless reporting to show how U.S. social policy and class discrimination make it almost impossible for America’s underclass to survive. Focusing on how such people fared during the Covid years, her heartbreaking stories detail callous disregard from corporations and blatant racism and classism from government and medical institutions. The stark details and scale of this injustice are startling, making the case that barriers to social mobility and systemic discrimination toward the least among us are underreported and inexcusable."
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If you're looking for Evicted or The Invisible Child (both of which I've read), this book in no way compares. Right from the start, I found myself wanting more. I actually looked to see if the author was a reporter because I felt like any writer with negligible research skills and good interviewing skills could have written this. It's pretty slim on facts or statistics. Heavy on the elderly and elderly people of color and the rest of the "disposables" really get short shift. This makes the stories themselves rather repetitive because it's one older person after another after another.

Not comparable to Evicted but interesting

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