Michael Tanner has produced an extraordinarily thoughtful and comprehensive look at the history, causes, and debates about poverty. His ultimate goal, to eradicate rather than alleviate poverty, will be widely shared, but his analysis and proposals will clearly challenge the beliefs of conservatives, libertarians, and progressives alike.

– Michael Stern, president emeritus, Service Employees International Union (SEIU)

I have a bookshelf full of treatises about the history and purposes of welfare programs, most written by prominent experts on the right and left. But this volume could be the most thorough, scholarly, and balanced in exploring the major explanations for poverty. It will be a long time before we get another volume on poverty that delivers the breadth of understanding and solutions found in this superb volume.

– Ron Haskins

Tanner's excellent new book bypasses the left-right divide to take the problem of poverty seriously. He shows that persistent poverty in the United States is largely structural. Welfare programs can help keep the poor from starving, but they have not and cannot solve the problem because they do not change the unfair structures which prevent the poor from escaping poverty. It's time we stop stacking the deck against the most vulnerable members of society.

– Jason Brennan, Robert J. and Elizabeth Flanagan Family Chair and Associate Professor of Strategy, Economics, Ethics, and Public Policy, the McDonough School of Business, Georgetown University, Georgetown University

Michael Tanner shows us why too much government regulation and too little economic freedom are precisely the structural conditions that keep so many Americans trapped in poverty. This is a balanced, sober, and thoughtful examination of the causes of poverty in the United States, and a hopeful and practical road map for how to make things better.

– Matt Zwolinski, Professor of Philosophy, University of San Diego, director, University of San Diego, Center for Ethics, Economics, and Public Policy