Parliament of Whores: A Lone Humorist Attempts to Explain the Entire U.S. Government Chapter Summary & Analysis - Our Government: What the Fuck Do They Do All Day and Why Does it Cost So Goddamned Much Money? pp. 123-154 Summary

Our Government: What the Fuck Do They Do All Day and Why Does it Cost So Goddamned Much Money? pp. 123-154 Summary and Analysis

Beginning a new section called "Poverty Policy: How to Endow Privation," O'Rourke visits a filthy, smelly, government-subsidized apartment complex in Newark, deciding that it is the least hospitable place he's ever seen. Nevertheless, he dismisses American poverty as a mathematical myth, insisting that government aid more than compensates for the income deficit of the poor. He argues that, in fact, modern poor Americans earn greater income than the middle-class Americans of 1900 and that, compared to the impoverished in other parts of the world, poor Americans are quite well off.

O'Rourke confesses that no one - not even experts - can explain the phenomena of the rundown Newark apartment complex. It appears that merely giving money to poor people doesn't stop actual, real poverty. Hoping to see poverty first hand, O'Rourke takes a trip to the South Bronx escorted by a group of Guardian Angels. He meets a diverse group...
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