Poverty for Profit: How Corporations Get Rich off America’s Poor (with Anne Kim)
02/25/25 • 38 min
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The U.S. spends billions on programs designed to fight poverty, but it appears that much of that money is actually making corporations richer instead of helping people. This week, Nick and Goldy sit down with Anne Kim, author of Poverty for Profit: How Corporations Get Rich off America's Poor, to talk about the vast industry that siphons public dollars from anti-poverty programs.. From tax prep companies skimming off the Earned Income Tax Credit to private Medicaid contractors denying care to boost their bottom line, Kim exposes the hidden ways corporations profit off economic hardship. How did we end up with an anti-poverty system that enriches shareholders instead of helping people? More importantly—how do we fix it?
Anne Kim is a writer, lawyer, public policy expert, and contributing editor at Washington Monthly. She’s also the author of Poverty for Profit: How Corporations Get Rich off America’s Poor and Abandoned: America’s Lost Youth and the Crisis of Disconnection.
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Further reading:
Poverty for Profit: How Corporations Get Rich off America’s Poor
Abandoned: America’s Lost Youth and the Crisis of Disconnection
The TurboTax Trap: How the Tax Prep Industry Makes You Pay
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The U.S. spends billions on programs designed to fight poverty, but it appears that much of that money is actually making corporations richer instead of helping people. This week, Nick and Goldy sit down with Anne Kim, author of Poverty for Profit: How Corporations Get Rich off America's Poor, to talk about the vast industry that siphons public dollars from anti-poverty programs.. From tax prep companies skimming off the Earned Income Tax Credit to private Medicaid contractors denying care to boost their bottom line, Kim exposes the hidden ways corporations profit off economic hardship. How did we end up with an anti-poverty system that enriches shareholders instead of helping people? More importantly—how do we fix it?
Anne Kim is a writer, lawyer, public policy expert, and contributing editor at Washington Monthly. She’s also the author of Poverty for Profit: How Corporations Get Rich off America’s Poor and Abandoned: America’s Lost Youth and the Crisis of Disconnection.
Social Media:
Further reading:
Poverty for Profit: How Corporations Get Rich off America’s Poor
Abandoned: America’s Lost Youth and the Crisis of Disconnection
The TurboTax Trap: How the Tax Prep Industry Makes You Pay
Website: http://pitchforkeconomics.com
Instagram: @pitchforkeconomics
Threads: pitchforkeconomics
Bluesky: @pitchforkeconomics.bsky.social
Twitter: @PitchforkEcon, @NickHanauer, @civicaction
YouTube: @pitchforkeconomics
LinkedIn: Pitchfork Economics
Substack: The Pitch
Previous Episode
Why the Economy Feels Rigged—and How to Fix It (with Senator Chris Murphy)
This week, Senator Chris Murphy joins Nick and Goldy to discuss the political failure of neoliberalism and what comes next for the Democratic Party. For decades, both parties embraced free trade and deregulation, promising that economic growth would benefit everyone. But that promise went unfulfilled as wages stagnated, industries collapsed, and inequality soared. Murphy explains how these policies left millions of Americans economically adrift, why Biden’s shift toward industrial policy is a step in the right direction, and how Democrats can remake their economic narrative by focusing on unrigging the system rather than handing out subsidies.
Chris Murphy is the junior United States Senator for the State of Connecticut.
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Further reading:
The Senator Warning Democrats of a Crisis Unfolding Beneath Their Noses
How Neoliberalism Cuts Off Community
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Bluesky: @pitchforkeconomics.bsky.social
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Next Episode
Breaking Up Big Econ (with David Deming)
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David Deming is the Isabelle and Scott Black Professor of Political Economy at the Harvard Kennedy School. Deming is also a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research and Associate Editor of the Journal of Economic Perspectives.
Social Media:
Further reading:
DOGE Is Failing on Its Own Terms
David Deming’s Substack Forked Lightning
The Trouble With Macroeconomics
Website: http://pitchforkeconomics.com
Instagram: @pitchforkeconomics
Threads: pitchforkeconomics
Bluesky: @pitchforkeconomics.bsky.social
Twitter: @PitchforkEcon, @NickHanauer, @civicaction
YouTube: @pitchforkeconomics
LinkedIn: Pitchfork Economics
Substack: The Pitch
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