Going for Broke: Living on the Edge in the World’s Richest Country

Going for Broke is a collection of first-person essays, poems, and photos that expose the effects of punitive social systems on Americans, featuring contributions from low-wage workers and downwardly spiraling professionals. It highlights the costs of income inequality to our bodies and minds and offers solutions to change our conditions.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 368 pages
Publication date: 03 October 2023
Publisher: Haymarket Books

A powerful and thought-provoking collection of first-person essays, poems, and photos, Going for Broke, edited by Alissa Quart, Executive Director of the Economic Hardship Reporting Project, and David Wallis, former Managing Director of EHRP, brings to light the devastating impact of punitive social systems on countless Americans. This anthology offers a platform for a diverse range of gifted writers who have experienced economic precarity firsthand, showcasing their unique perspectives and experiences. Going for Broke sheds light on what the late Barbara Ehrenreich, the visionary behind the Economic Hardship Reporting Project, referred to as the true essence of journalism today: the voices of low-wage workers and downwardly spiraling professionals, rather than the million-dollar-a-year anchorpersons.

Within the pages of this anthology, readers are taken on a journey through the lives of essayists and grocery store workers, who candidly describe the challenges and hardships they faced during the pandemic as "essential workers." Another writer, a reporter and military veteran, shares his deeply personal account of homelessness and the inadequate support he received at the time. These dozens of compelling and often darkly funny pieces serve as a reflection of the larger systems that have made writers' bodily experiences, family and home lives, and work exponentially more difficult than they should be.

Going for Broke is a revelatory work that exposes the profound costs of income inequality to our bodies and minds. Through powerful introductions by luminaries such as Michelle Tea, Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, and Astra Taylor, the book provides a roadmap for change, offering practical solutions and strategies for improving our conditions. It serves as a testament to the resilience and determination of those who have faced economic adversity and a call to action for a more just and equitable society.

Dimension: 216 x 140 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781642599657