What's So Bad About Being Poor?

by Michael R. Weisser

A study which combines data, personal histories and original national surveys to look at American poverty from a fresh perspective. Rather than assuming that the poor are trapped in poverty, this book suggests that many poor people not only live within their means, but feel neither trapped nor frustrated because they see greater wealth around them which they do not have. The book is also a critique of recent scholarship on inequality by Piketty, Deaton and other researchers, and gives graphic, compelling personal examples of what poverty means to people who are poor. The book also suggests that the current political narrative about the 'wage gap' and the shrinking of the middle class need to be rethought and better undertood.

129 pages, Paperback

Published April 12, 2020

About the author

We always had books around the house and I loved to read. My favorite author when I was kid was the Civil War historian, Bruce Catton. Then in my 30s I started reading spy novels, particularly Eric Ambler and others like him, followed by John LeCarre and others like him, such as Downing, Kerr and Furst. In my 30s I also discovered the Swedish and Scandinavian crime writers - Wahloo, then Mankell, now Nesbo.
I published my first book in 1977, then two more in 1980 and 1983. All were non-fiction. I stopped writing for many years because I wouldn't write if I couldn't get published and it was too difficult to deal with agents, editors, publishers, etc. Then I started doing some short pieces on the internet and finally discovered self-publishing of books on the web. So now I'm writing again.
I have been in the gun business for 35 years and have sold more than 40,000 guns and also trained more than 2,000 men and women in shooting techniques and gun safety. So I figured it was time to write a book about guns. I enjoyed writing it and I hope you'll enjoy reading it. I also do blogs about guns for the Huffington Post.