Living in poverty, especially extreme poverty, is never just about financial hardship. The authors investigate several consequences of poverty throughout the book, including how it affects a person physically and socially, but one of the most salient themes is the emotional impact of being destitute. In sharing these families’ stories, the authors also share many of the turbulent emotions they feel. The beginning of the book shows that there is a distinct aura of hopelessness that saturates the lives of those living in $2-a-day poverty, and this is something the authors remark on in the Introduction:

These families didn’t just have too little cash to survive on, as was true for the welfare recipients Edin and Lein had met in the early 1990s. They often had no cash at all. And the absence of cash permeated every aspect of their lives. It seemed as though not only cash was missing, but hope as well (xv).

It quickly becomes apparent how a lack of cash can also result in a lack of hope. The families in this book are not in $2-a-day poverty because they don’t try to improve their lives. On the contrary, they work hard to get jobs, keep their jobs, and provide their loved ones with basic necessities.