Summary

Desmond opens Chapter 6 by giving many examples of the tremendous amount of wealth in America. Our cars are big, our homes are big, and more than one in eight Americans owns a second residence (103). Americans prefer and even expect rock-bottom prices, and the working poor make these prices possible. Tax breaks for very wealthy Americans keep the rich getting richer while the poor get poorer. This cycle contributes to "private opulence and public squalor" (111) because the wealthy find it easy to disengage with public projects because their extreme wealth walls them in to their own splendor. The very wealthy withdraw from public schools, for instance, and segregate their children. American zoning laws also greatly contribute to the growing gap between rich and poor. Americans like the idea of low-cost housing opportunities, but they do not necessarily want subsidized apartment buildings in their own...