I tried so hard to get into this book, but it was painful to read. It was loaded with jargon...snore and worse still it makes some pretty overarching statements about how people in lower socioeconomic groups behave, which I frankly disagree with.

In the latter case, I really disagree with the idea that poor people trust less. I have found this is not true and it certainly does not account for the inter-reliance and interdependence observed in underground economies. People have to trust and depend on one another, even when situations are not always healthy, in order to stay alive. Having moved from poverty to the middle class, I find that middle class people trust less, because there is always the idea that one might slip down into poverty if one trusts the wrong person. Eliza Doolittle's father in Pygmalion called it "middle class morality". I think he was far more on point. This issue was really where I got hung up and I guess once I didn't trust the author, I couldn't get into the rest of his argument.

My guess is that people who have never experienced poverty will feel differently about the book, which is why I gave it the rating I did.

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