Disposable

September 1, 2024

Jones, a senior writer for New York magazine covering politics and religion, offers a mix of reporting and personal narrative as she explores inequality in the United States. Using COVID as her marker, she exposes how the nation creates an underclass it then sacrifices; she also lays out arguments to turn the tide. Prepub Alert.

Copyright 2024 Library Journal

Copyright 2024 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

January 1, 2025
An indignant cri de coeur against the practice of contemporary capitalism to make people, yes, disposable. It is a crime against humanity, born of contempt indeed, that so many Americans--members of ethnic minorities, immigrants, the elderly and disabled--live lives in which it is "normal" to suffer privation. "In America," assertsNew York magazine writer Jones, "normal for millions can mean fear and hunger and, sometimes, death." All that came true with the arrival of the Covid-19 epidemic on the watch of a "slumlord president" whose brief it was, by her account, to protect the interests of the ruling class. The pandemic, Jones holds, was a prime example of what Friedrich Engels called "social murder." One victim was her grandfather, who transitioned from working-class life to "the mercy of whatever rehabilitation center that he and our family could afford," there being scarcely any safety net for such people in a society based on the fundamental belief that rich and poor enjoy those conditions because somehow they deserve them. "My grandfather died because a virus killed him, but other hands helped him toward his demise," Jones holds. Others she profiles are among the "essential workers," who are disproportionately members of ethnic minorities and whose low rate of pay all too often condemns them to poor, overcrowded housing conditions that are perfect vectors for a pandemic. Jones examines ways in which the excesses of predatory capitalism can be contained, from reparations to the reconstitution of labor unions, higher wages, and other protections. The pandemic laid bare the casual cruelty and inequity of a system that, for most people, means "there is work, and then death." Undoing that system, Jones insists, will require a radical solution: "Excise an inhuman political economy from the national body, and replace it with something else, something we haven't yet tried." A powerful, heartfelt argument for a more humane economics.

COPYRIGHT(2025) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Starred review from January 6, 2025
Jones, a senior writer at New York magazine, debuts with a disquieting examination of the systemic flaws laid bare by Covid. “What the pandemic did... is strip the world back until its workings are visible to all,” she contends. Drawing on personal accounts from Covid victims and their families, Jones profiles people with disabilities who died alone in overfilled care facilities, frontline workers who couldn’t afford to quit, a prisoner who worked on a hazmat team with no protective gear, and a Haitian immigrant with a precarious housing situation that made care more difficult to access—after she died of Covid, her son remarked that her doctors had been “ready to rush her into the grave.” His statement is only half hyperbole—Jones’s vision of America isn’t one where the poor stumbled into Covid-era tragedy by happenstance but one in which it was intentionally engineered, and she interweaves her account with a mind-boggling assortment of anecdotes and insights that showcase systemic harm and humiliation. They range from an observation that medical programs that forcibly sterilized the poor under the auspices of eugenics in the early 20th century now aggressively collect unpaid medical bills as a similar deterrent to accessing care, to a story about workers at an Oakland McDonald’s who finally walked off the job when they were given dog diapers to use as masks during the Covid lockdown. It’s a ghastly panorama of the American way of life.

January 1, 2025
New York magazine senior writer Jones explores the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the most defenseless Americans, those who are poor, elderly, or disabled. She starts with what she calls "social murder," explaining how people in these groups were impacted more strongly by the virus, often paying with their lives. This was not only because they were more susceptible to disease but also because they lacked access to adequate health care and funds to treat underlying conditions. Through personal stories and interviews, Jones explores many scenarios that highlight the lack of social mobility and how capitalism fuels this continued cycle of poverty. For example, white-collar workers had the opportunity to work from home whereas low-wage workers had no choice but to go into work or risk being homeless and hungry. Jones notes how policy, like the federal Child Tax Credit given during the pandemic, reduced childhood poverty. She believes that changes can happen to address this "disposable" attitude toward the American underclass. Readers who are interested in social justice and politics will find this book a helpful guide to taking action.

COPYRIGHT(2025) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.