Disposable

America's Contempt for the Underclass

De: Sarah Jones

Narrado por: Sarah Mollo-Christensen

In this “barn burner of a book” (The New York Times Book Review) New York magazine senior writer Sarah Jones blends personal stories and in-depth reporting to expose the harsh reality of America’s culture of inequality and the devastating impact of the pandemic on our nation’s most vulnerable people.

In the tradition of Matthew Desmond’s Evicted and Andrea Elliot’s Invisible Child, Disposable is a poignant exploration of America’s underclass, left vulnerable by systemic racism and capitalism. Here, Sarah Jones delves into the lives of the essential workers, seniors, and people with disabilities who were disproportionately affected by COVID-19—not due to their age or profession, but because of the systemic inequality and poverty that left them exposed.

The pandemic served as a stark revelation of the true state of America, a country where the dream of prosperity is a distant mirage for millions. Jones argues that the pandemic didn’t create these dynamics but rather revealed the existing social mobility issues and wealth gap that have long plagued the nation. Behind the staggering death toll are stories of lives lost, injustices suffered, and institutions that failed to protect their people.

Jones brings these stories to the forefront, transforming the abstract concept of the pandemic into a deeply personal and political phenomenon. Her book “stands as a reminder of the lessons our country has willfully ignored—an especially stark one with Donald Trump back in the White House and further shredding the social safety net” (The Washington Post).

©2025 Sarah Jones (P)2025 Simon & Schuster Audio

Not comparable to Evicted but interesting

If you're looking for Evicted or The Invisible Child (both of which I've read), this book in no way compares. Right from the start, I found myself wanting more. I actually looked to see if the author was a reporter because I felt like any writer with negligible research skills and good interviewing skills could have written this. It's pretty slim on facts or statistics. Heavy on the elderly and elderly people of color and the rest of the "disposables" really get short shift. This makes the stories themselves rather repetitive because it's one older person after another after another.