Anyone who has ever struggled with poverty knows how extremely expensive it is to be poor.

The line points to a paradox at the heart of economic deprivation: poverty is not merely a lack of money but a condition that generates extra costs and penalties. Being poor often means paying more—through higher interest, late fees, lack of bulk-buying power, inferior housing and healthcare, unreliable transportation, and the constant risk that a small emergency becomes catastrophic. The quote also implies a moral critique of social systems that treat scarcity as personal failure while structurally extracting more from those with the least. It resonates with Baldwin’s broader attention to how American institutions compound hardship and constrain dignity.