Why the Poor Don't Kill Us: 'Living in SA, how could you not read this book!'

Every week The Money Show interviews the author or reviewer of a new or trending business book.

This week Africa Melane (in for Stephen Grootes) talked to Bronwyn Williams, trend translator and future finance specialist at Flux Trends.

She reviewed Why the Poor Don't Kill Us by Manu Joseph.

This is the first work of non-fiction by the Indian journalist and award-winning novelist, also the creator of the Netflix series, Decoupled.

Williams emphasizes that the book is not an objective take of the situation in his home country but a personal interpretation of data and statistics.

"How can you not read this book, I mean why don't the poor kill the rich! Of course living in, officially, the world's most unequal country of South Africa... we need to pay attention to this."

"And although there are similarities, we have more inter-class violence here, while India is more peaceful in lots of ways, so it was really interesting to read this assessment."

"It's not an objective analysis done with data and statistics - it's an interpretation of these based on someone's personal observatios of living in both India's poorer and wealthier classes, and also spending some time out of the country... looking at why in particular there's not been a class revolt in that country."

"You can't help as you are reading, to rememember about how long South Africa suffered under apartheid, and how we did not actually end that with a bloody revolution either - instead there was a more negotiated transition."

"This again I think points to some of the conclusions that come out of the book which are really some of the most quotable quotes you will find, saying things like change or good happens when the second rung of society rises up against the first rung - in other words when the middle classes can no longer tolerate the ruling classes for whatever reason..."

"...and that in fact, as may sociologists and economists have pointed out, the poorest of the poor among us are quite frankly too busy being poor and surviving, to really challenge the system they come from."

Bronwyn Williams, Future Finance Specialist - Flux Trends

Description on Amazon:

In this searing and darkly hilarious diagnosis of contemporary society, acclaimed Indian writer Manu Joseph explores why the poor don’t rise in revolt against the rich despite living in one of the most unequal regions of the world.

The poor know how much we spend in a single day, on a single meal, the price of Atlantic salmon and avocados. “Why,” he asks, “do they tolerate it? Why don’t they crawl out from their catastrophes and finish us off? Why don’t little men emerge from manholes and attack the cars? Why don’t the maids, who squat like frogs beside kitchen sinks, pull out the hair of their conscientious madams who never give them a day off? Why is there peace?”

Why the Poor Don’t Kill Us lays bare, with pitiless precision, the absurd, obvious and counter-intuitive reasons why we are safe. So far. It is a fragile peace, and we need to understand how it has come to be.

The book is published in India by noted independent publisher Aleph, and distributed in several countries by Middlebrow, the film company that has acquired the visual rights.

Scroll up to the audio player to to Williams' review of Why the Poor Don't Kill Us