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The duality of American life can make it difficult for some of us who benefit from the current arrangement to remember that the poor are exploited laborers, exploited consumers, and exploited borrowers, precisely because we are not.

This passage falls at the end of Chapter 4: How We Force the Poor to Pay More. In this chapter, Desmond explores the dual nature of the American housing market and banking system, explaining that affluent people tend to be unaware of how the systems that benefit them often take advantage of the poor. While housing is an investment for affluent people, banks are often unwilling to extend mortgages in low-income areas, forcing poor people to rent, which costs them more in the long term. Likewise, conventional banks provide advantages to the affluent while excluding the poor, leaving them prey to high-interest payday loans.

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