From tax preparation to SNAP benefits, health care to housing, a myriad of government services have been privatized in the name of cost savings and efficiency. But the cost to taxpayers and to recipients is high, and the impact on corporate influence in government is undeniable.

Anne Kim writes about the money made on America's poor, in her new book Poverty for Profit: How Corporations Get Rich off America’s Poor.

“These companies are not neutral administrators of government programs," Kim writes. "They’re a silent but powerful pillar of the poverty bureaucracy.”

Kim is a lawyer and public policy expert and former Senior Writer at the Washington Monthly, where she still serves as a contributing editor.