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Fucked at Birth: Recalibrating the American Dream for the 2020s
Pulitzer prize-winning journalist Dale Maharidge has spent his career documenting the downward spiral of the American working class. Poverty is both reality and destiny for increasing numbers of people in the 2020s and, as Maharidge discovers spray-painted inside an abandoned gas station in the California desert, it is a fate often handed down from birth.
Motivated by this haunting phrase―“Fucked at Birth”―Maharidge explores the realities of being poor in America in the coming decade, as pandemic, economic crisis and social revolution up-end the country. Part raw memoir, part dogged, investigative journalism, Fucked At Birth channels the history of poverty in America to help inform the voices Maharidge encounters daily. In an unprecedented time of social activism amid economic crisis, when voices everywhere are rising up for change, Maharidge’s journey channels the spirits of George Orwell and James Agee, raising questions about class, privilege, and the very concept of “upward mobility,” while serving as a final call to action. From Sacramento to Denver, Youngstown to New York City, Fucked At Birth dares readers to see themselves in those suffering most, and to finally―after decades of refusal―recalibrate what we are going to do about it.
Motivated by this haunting phrase―“Fucked at Birth”―Maharidge explores the realities of being poor in America in the coming decade, as pandemic, economic crisis and social revolution up-end the country. Part raw memoir, part dogged, investigative journalism, Fucked At Birth channels the history of poverty in America to help inform the voices Maharidge encounters daily. In an unprecedented time of social activism amid economic crisis, when voices everywhere are rising up for change, Maharidge’s journey channels the spirits of George Orwell and James Agee, raising questions about class, privilege, and the very concept of “upward mobility,” while serving as a final call to action. From Sacramento to Denver, Youngstown to New York City, Fucked At Birth dares readers to see themselves in those suffering most, and to finally―after decades of refusal―recalibrate what we are going to do about it.
160 pages, Hardcover
First published January 12, 2021
15 people are currently reading
303 people want to read
About the author
Dale Maharidge
24 books121 followersI'm a professor at Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism. I've published ten books, including And Their Children After Them, which won the 1990 non-fiction Pulitzer Prize. The most recent is Bringing Mulligan Home/The Other Side of the Good War (PublicAffairs). Before that I released the paperback edition of Someplace Like America/ Tales from the New Great Depression(University of California Press), with a foreword by Bruce Springsteen.
My books are all thematically connected, I believe, rooted in my curiosity about America and who we are as a people. I've documented the economic crisis since the 1980s. For working people, there is no other way to describe it. If you want, check out the afterword I wrote for the paperback of Someplace Like America--I reported in Detroit for it and I found some very interesting things there that raises questions about where we are going as a country.
I spent the first 15 years of my career as a newspaperman, working in Cleveland and Sacramento. I also taught at Stanford University for 10 years, in the Department of Communication.
My books are all thematically connected, I believe, rooted in my curiosity about America and who we are as a people. I've documented the economic crisis since the 1980s. For working people, there is no other way to describe it. If you want, check out the afterword I wrote for the paperback of Someplace Like America--I reported in Detroit for it and I found some very interesting things there that raises questions about where we are going as a country.
I spent the first 15 years of my career as a newspaperman, working in Cleveland and Sacramento. I also taught at Stanford University for 10 years, in the Department of Communication.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 39 reviews
August 4, 2021
He mentioned the wealth gap between the 1% and everyone else briefly, then dropped that line never to be spoken of again in order to spend the rest of the book on a white-black race baiting narrative, immediately destroying everything he had been building up towards and invalidating himself with a massive self contradiction. Perhaps he just couldn't help himself but to jump on the bash-whitey train. So instead of uniting everyone against the people who are actually f-ing us all, he wussed out of that and went with the safe trendy route to grift. Weak journalism, disingenuous, tiresome.
You never get anything done about the problem of the mega-rich stealing from the rest of us because, perhaps, you refuse to acknowledge and hone in on the true problem and always digress to dividing the poor against the even poorer? What is wrong, are your wealthy masters too powerful to be criticised? You know their names. You could make a list. Coward.
You never get anything done about the problem of the mega-rich stealing from the rest of us because, perhaps, you refuse to acknowledge and hone in on the true problem and always digress to dividing the poor against the even poorer? What is wrong, are your wealthy masters too powerful to be criticised? You know their names. You could make a list. Coward.
January 13, 2022
Overall this book was really unfocussed. It didn't seem to have any direction or specific point it was trying to make. I feel like the title was chosen to grab people's attention (which worked on me) but doesn't really reflect the content. It's really just a look at how Covid has affected people around the US, and how everyone is being affected negatively, although obviously marginalized groups are being impacted even more. It was just a very superficial look at the issues and I wanted it to go deeper, especially since I know this was written by an award winning author.
September 21, 2022
I read this book at the same time as Jackpot by Michael Mechanic. Two books, concurrently, one about poverty and one about wealth. The review of Michael Mechanic's book is forthcoming but will certainly feature a mix of envy and revulsion. There's a vicarious thrill when you read about mansions and private jets and vacations in the Maldives. And a mix of pity and schadenfreude when you read about the ennui and existential vacuum that a life of extreme wealth enables.
And then there's this book, Fucked At Birth, which is a tour through homeless camps and shuttered steel factories and unemployment lines in the aftermath of the pandemic, the great American dispossessed. It's a work of journalism, so there's little in the way of an overarching narrative or analysis. The author simply drove from California to New York, talked to people along the way, and reported what happened. It reads like a newspaper article. But it throws the extravagance and luxury of Jackpot into sharp relief.
Is this the point where I get on my soapbox and point out the absurdity of living in a country where the three richest people have more wealth than the bottom 50% of Americans? Is rampant inequality not self-evidently terrible? Does it bother you that the American dream (as measured by upward mobility) is better off in Canada than America? And that the gap between wealth and poor in this country is now approaching that of El Salvador?
I'm too depressed to finish this review. I'm going to order sushi and watch another episode of Community after I get done working remotely from the comfort of my air-conditioned, rent-controlled living room. Can we please build a society where public schools are fully funded and everyone has health care? And stop shooting each other? Please? Pretty please?
And then there's this book, Fucked At Birth, which is a tour through homeless camps and shuttered steel factories and unemployment lines in the aftermath of the pandemic, the great American dispossessed. It's a work of journalism, so there's little in the way of an overarching narrative or analysis. The author simply drove from California to New York, talked to people along the way, and reported what happened. It reads like a newspaper article. But it throws the extravagance and luxury of Jackpot into sharp relief.
Is this the point where I get on my soapbox and point out the absurdity of living in a country where the three richest people have more wealth than the bottom 50% of Americans? Is rampant inequality not self-evidently terrible? Does it bother you that the American dream (as measured by upward mobility) is better off in Canada than America? And that the gap between wealth and poor in this country is now approaching that of El Salvador?
I'm too depressed to finish this review. I'm going to order sushi and watch another episode of Community after I get done working remotely from the comfort of my air-conditioned, rent-controlled living room. Can we please build a society where public schools are fully funded and everyone has health care? And stop shooting each other? Please? Pretty please?
April 6, 2021
As a fan of Dale Maharidge's prior work, his books are must-reads, as he truly captures the plight of the working class and poor in a straightforward manner. This shorter non-fiction book captures our nation in a moment of turmoil as it was written during the first months of the covid pandemic and he traveled from California where he had quarantined back to the east coast where he is a tenured professor at Columbia University. The book then serves as a travelogue of sorts as he interviews people on his journey, and showing them a picture of an abandoned gas station he had taken with the graffiti that is the title of the book, and asking them what they think that phrase means. The under-class often feel it very true, as they feel life has been stacked against them since birth. Maharidge, and others he interviews, feel that there is a reckoning coming and the nation will be facing huge struggles in the next few years as we face another pivotal election in 2024 after the divisive Trump years. As he has proved to be someone who has an awareness of racial and economic inequalities, his words of caution should be heeded.
December 25, 2021
A book for every American. This is journalism, without the “objectivity.” Speaking as a reporter, I think Maharidge did a nice job of covering a handful of topics in a concise, yet thorough, way, while also humanizing these systemic issues. The book is a call to action, simply because it states the dire truth: that perhaps the “American Dream” is not accessible, and never will be, to some of its people from the time they are born.
Note: I did feel some sections lacked substance and could have gone deeper. For example, the BLM chapter felt thin to me; I wish he’d talked to more people and reported on a greater number of instances of police brutality. I also would’ve liked to read more about generational divides and how younger generations approach wealth and success differently than older generations. While it’s impossible to touch on everything — or even know what “everything” means in this context — there were several relevant topics I felt were excluded. Overall, this book stands somewhere between a 3-4 rating for me. It could’ve been a bit stronger, but I stand by the fact that it is a must-read going into 2021.
Note: I did feel some sections lacked substance and could have gone deeper. For example, the BLM chapter felt thin to me; I wish he’d talked to more people and reported on a greater number of instances of police brutality. I also would’ve liked to read more about generational divides and how younger generations approach wealth and success differently than older generations. While it’s impossible to touch on everything — or even know what “everything” means in this context — there were several relevant topics I felt were excluded. Overall, this book stands somewhere between a 3-4 rating for me. It could’ve been a bit stronger, but I stand by the fact that it is a must-read going into 2021.
June 16, 2021
Every American needs to read this book. In this highly important piece of investigative journalism Dale Maharidge dives deep into the unobtainable American dream. It was so heartbreaking to read the stories of a handful of Americans living homeless as internally displaced people (IDP/refugees) in the most powerful country in the world displaced by a system programmed to keep the status quo. "Fucked At Birth" primarily focuses on the economic disaster that has befallen America since the start of the pandemic as well as noting the sand castle economic/health care/education/housing/etc foundation that is in place to begin with.
Dale discusses a myriad of topics from the disaster that was the Trump administration, systematic racism and oppression, hate mongering against immigrants, the homeless industrial complex, our failing healthcare system, the diminishing middle class, the many ways the pandemic peeled back the wallpaper to show the rot underneath, how Jeff Bezos and other billionaires grew richer while many Americans suffered from food insecurity and sudden homelessness, America's prioritization of funding the military as an economic resource over American livelihood and basic human rights, and so many more important points of discussion. I could gush on about this book, but it would not begin to do it justice. I especially appreciated the section Dale wrote about Colorado from NGO food pantries, the fight for justice for Elijah McClaine, historical events, and so much more. This book was a great opening discussion about what has been and is continuing to go wrong in the US, how the pandemic has begun reshaping our everyday life, and predicting the many challenges coming our way in the next few years to come.
Dale discusses a myriad of topics from the disaster that was the Trump administration, systematic racism and oppression, hate mongering against immigrants, the homeless industrial complex, our failing healthcare system, the diminishing middle class, the many ways the pandemic peeled back the wallpaper to show the rot underneath, how Jeff Bezos and other billionaires grew richer while many Americans suffered from food insecurity and sudden homelessness, America's prioritization of funding the military as an economic resource over American livelihood and basic human rights, and so many more important points of discussion. I could gush on about this book, but it would not begin to do it justice. I especially appreciated the section Dale wrote about Colorado from NGO food pantries, the fight for justice for Elijah McClaine, historical events, and so much more. This book was a great opening discussion about what has been and is continuing to go wrong in the US, how the pandemic has begun reshaping our everyday life, and predicting the many challenges coming our way in the next few years to come.
April 10, 2022
It was good and brought up a lot of great relevant points about economic distribution and disparity. I really liked how much the author considered the long term impacts of the pandemic in terms of jobs and systems of employment. It was a very interesting read but did not spend a whole lot of time discussing the intersections of identity and I felt like they lump all economy disadvantaged or poor people into one umbrella as opposed to critically considering the different layers.
I would’ve given 3 stars but the author decided to include a quote using the R-slur that gave zero context or purpose to the usage.
I would’ve given 3 stars but the author decided to include a quote using the R-slur that gave zero context or purpose to the usage.
December 3, 2021
Terrible reporting. The book skips around all over the place, giving very surface level examples of a few people who ended up homeless with no exploration into the reasons they ended up homeless. No examples whatsoever of how their homelessness was a result of being "fucked at birth".
One guy supposedly had a great middle class life in Texas and for unknown reasons picked up and drove to California to start a new life only to realize housing was more expensive so he was living out of his car.
One middle aged couple was living out of their car because the husband had lost his landscaping job when the pandemic started. No mention about the wife working. And as I remember, during the summer of 2020, demand was huge for any kind of home improvement workers.
Anyway, I'd say you are fucked at birth if you are born a girl in Afghanistan, or a part of Africa where you can't get an education and are malnourished your whole childhood. Maybe you are fucked at birth if you're born a crack baby in America and grow up in a neighborhood with gang violence. But for most people in America, there are so many opportunities to get ahead, if you don't fuck it up all by yourself.
One guy supposedly had a great middle class life in Texas and for unknown reasons picked up and drove to California to start a new life only to realize housing was more expensive so he was living out of his car.
One middle aged couple was living out of their car because the husband had lost his landscaping job when the pandemic started. No mention about the wife working. And as I remember, during the summer of 2020, demand was huge for any kind of home improvement workers.
Anyway, I'd say you are fucked at birth if you are born a girl in Afghanistan, or a part of Africa where you can't get an education and are malnourished your whole childhood. Maybe you are fucked at birth if you're born a crack baby in America and grow up in a neighborhood with gang violence. But for most people in America, there are so many opportunities to get ahead, if you don't fuck it up all by yourself.
February 2, 2021
Dale Maharidge has been covering houseless people and poverty longer than I've been alive. This book contains thirty plus years of reportage experience to tell the story of a coming crisis in the U.S. in which 30-40 million people could find themselves temporarily or permanently homeless. This is a grim forecast but it actually seems inevitable with the current state of the economy and the unavailability of jobs now and in the future.
The book also covers racial inequality and contains brief encounters with BLM protesters and organizers. These sections highlight the relationship between poverty and racism and the tilt of America always sliding toward fascism. The current trajectory, according to this book, and in the opinion of many of those interviewed in it, is towards economic devastation and a fascist future. The problems of the pandemic era we have entered will never be remedied, but only get worse and worse. There won't be a return to normal, and the book highlights that the old normal wasn't working since the 1980s and long before that.
The book also covers racial inequality and contains brief encounters with BLM protesters and organizers. These sections highlight the relationship between poverty and racism and the tilt of America always sliding toward fascism. The current trajectory, according to this book, and in the opinion of many of those interviewed in it, is towards economic devastation and a fascist future. The problems of the pandemic era we have entered will never be remedied, but only get worse and worse. There won't be a return to normal, and the book highlights that the old normal wasn't working since the 1980s and long before that.
July 31, 2022
I was apparently expecting something different than what the topic actually was. Admittedly I flip through audiobooks based on narration more than the actual topic most of the time.
I guess I expected something like Crack addicted babies or...anything but yet another socialist blaming the existence they made, on people long dead.
In addition the author was all over the map in terms of subsets of topics. Started off about BLM and ended up on the Great Depression. Not so much confusing as just awkward transitions and all of it blaming his hated life on other people.
The author wanders from one word salad topic to another. I can't give half a star, unfortunately. This read a lot like White Fragility in the horrible grammar and topic jumping. All I see is an author who will blame anyone but themselves for the consequences of their own actions. He touches on positivity at one point and I couldn't believe he shot that down too.
He would have been more convincing to draw people to his work and the topics if his inherent biases weren't the entire focus of the book.
Should title it: "watch me blame Trump for things that happened in the 70s in Cali."
I guess I expected something like Crack addicted babies or...anything but yet another socialist blaming the existence they made, on people long dead.
In addition the author was all over the map in terms of subsets of topics. Started off about BLM and ended up on the Great Depression. Not so much confusing as just awkward transitions and all of it blaming his hated life on other people.
The author wanders from one word salad topic to another. I can't give half a star, unfortunately. This read a lot like White Fragility in the horrible grammar and topic jumping. All I see is an author who will blame anyone but themselves for the consequences of their own actions. He touches on positivity at one point and I couldn't believe he shot that down too.
He would have been more convincing to draw people to his work and the topics if his inherent biases weren't the entire focus of the book.
Should title it: "watch me blame Trump for things that happened in the 70s in Cali."
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 4, 2024
The chapters were short, and there were section headers, pictures, and long quotes that took up entire pages that shortened an already short book. It was a series of brief snapshots of different areas of the country during the pandemic. At one point, I asked myself, "is this guy telling me anything I don't already know?" Not really.
Anyone who lived through recent history, has been paying attention, and has read any another sociologically minded book on current societal problems in the US is already mindful of these issues.
For me, it didn't go deep enough, or dwell with one person, place, or issue long enough to expose anything profound that I wasn't already familiar with.
The provocative title got me to pick it up off the library shelf, but it wasn't much more than that.
Anyone who lived through recent history, has been paying attention, and has read any another sociologically minded book on current societal problems in the US is already mindful of these issues.
For me, it didn't go deep enough, or dwell with one person, place, or issue long enough to expose anything profound that I wasn't already familiar with.
The provocative title got me to pick it up off the library shelf, but it wasn't much more than that.
June 15, 2021
Very helpful book, very needed book, told me about a new genre of non-fiction I need to read. I'm tired of capitalism in general so I don't think we can just buy some damn time, but this book is very helpful for understanding how the economic crash is separate from the pandemic especially due to the bourgeois media's conflation & the bourgeoisie's push to reopen the country. We also have a segregationist in office instead of Bernie Sanders to say the minimum of the horror. We reuped on George W Bush era horror of refusing to stop the war, or at least letting the GOP have power.
April 24, 2022
brings to light the economic inequality we have in America. How a lot of America youth are literally set up to fail from no fault of there own. He questions the way the government distributes our economy’s wealth. How we never had any money to distribute and now the pandemic has the FED literally printing money at will with no thoughts of repercussions. His investigative writing was sort of all over the place but I actually liked that part because that’s how my brain naturally works. Overall really enjoyed his writing and look forward to checking out more writing by this author.
July 11, 2021
Good book. It seems the author has been researching some of this for decades. Lots of interviews and research but, he referred to his previous interviews and research often. He referred to his previous writing several times also. I understand the research was pertinent to the present book but, I feel like he got a little lazy with further interviews for this book. He mentioned PTSD from his earlier years of research but, I can't help but feel he kind of phoned it in.
July 20, 2021
Well written and reasonably well researched look at the working class and poor during the pandemic. There are a lot of interesting vignettes and the author does a good job do drawing a line from the Great Depression through modern day. It’s also depressing how so little has changed over the past 40-50 years. My two complaints are I wanted deeper research to go along with the anecdotes, and the author often eludes to his older books. Still, a thoughtful and engaging read.
January 17, 2023
Though the writing is occasionally hurried and spare, the strength of Fucked at Birth is its immediacy — from COVID-19 to Donald Trump, Black Lives Matter, soup kitchens, mass evictions, and domestic terrorism. These are problems unexamined in the books mentioned earlier because Maharidge’s subjects exist in the precise now. Fucked at Birth reads like a waking nightmare, a dark illumination of our most immediate crises
September 18, 2024
I listened to
Fucked at Birth
by Dale Maharidge while staining my deck last weekend (fun times) and it certainly served the purpose of keeping my mind busy while doing a tedious job. It largely focused on the increase in unemployment, homelessness, and poverty resulting from the covid-19 epidemic but also touched base on race and generational poverty. It was interesting and helped me pass the time, but I wouldn't say it was overly enjoyable or intellectually profound, thus, I give it 3 stars.
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July 28, 2022I'm not entirely sure how to rate this. It didn't feel entirely cohesive and probably could have benefitted from being a bit longer to make it more so, but Maharidge wove together narratives of this country in a way that brought the nuances of America's diversity and vastness to light (for example, how LA deals with homelessness vs how NYC does).
December 13, 2023
DNF @ 90%. This read more like an article than a book, and it felt a bit unfocused. The basis is primarily homelessness due to COVID, but I feel like the author missed so many opportunities to dive deeper into the systemic issues we have as a country that started pre-COVID and were only exasperated by that crisis. Overall it just missed the mark.
June 13, 2021
A clear-eyed assessment of the failure of the US and Capitalism in general for working people and the poor. Grim stories and warning signs that the system is going to blow up. If the good guys on the left don't seize control the fascists will.
May 29, 2023
one of those quick little "oh fuck i need to choose an audiobook right this second" grabs. i appreciated the concept behind this, but it all felt incredibly surface level, like a book report about going to the zoo.
April 2, 2021
2.5
good luck
good luck
April 24, 2021
Eye opening and easy to read.
May 4, 2021
a Good travel book That Could Have Very Well Been Written In 2008
October 29, 2021
Oof. Giving me a lot to think about.
April 21, 2022
This book lost the thread pretty early on. By the time the narrator was literally just reading a long string of random ads out loud I just yanked the cord out. I was so very done.
May 11, 2022
Incoherent ramblings about genuine problems with US economy.
June 4, 2023
When the middle class becomes the new lower class.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 39 reviews