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	• The Working Poor: Invisible in America David K. Shipler Vintage, 2005 - 352 pages average customer review:based on 73 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

You better believe it!

This is a great book from the standpoint of someone with serious credibility substantiating the difficulties faced by the majority of Americans.
I have been homeless after being laid-off,only later to be underemployed even after getting a usable college degree,working very hard and "doing the right things" as everyone around me encouraged me in these things.Some might call me a loser, but i even went so far as to write letters to dozens of employers offering to work for free in exchange for a chance to upgrade my skills and get a positive letter of recommendation- no one gave me a chance even then.
To add to Ms. Ehrenreich's observations:
1) There are very few safety nets in America,contrary to popular belief. If you get to the point I was, you will learn for yourself.
2)In working for one major retailer EVERYONE knows(not Walmart) some of my own experience:
a) after spending 3 hours typing 10 pages of constructive ideas to improve business for customers and employees( while increasing profitability )on my own time and sending them to corporate, all I received back was essentially emails saying- "Who are you?"/"Why do you care"?/"Stop bugging us"
b)when telling a junior that i worked hard to ensure he succeeds, the response was "it doesn't matter"-that manager was promoted
c) when informing another junior manager that customers were leaving angry because we could not fulfill basic customer service from being short-staffed, the manager responded-"no problem- they'll be back"
d)another full-fledged manager,when told certain tasks didn't get done because there was not enough staff and everyone was doing the equivalent work of 2-3 people, responded- "what is the maximum range of an excuse"- that manager by the way, being a new member of America's wealthiest
e)having wages that might qualify as below poverty level and working very very hard just for that, i approached my manager asking for overtime or help as I was going to be homeless and could not afford the rents in the area, that manager went on to cut any overtime available to me

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He Understands Poverty

I heard him speak on C-SPAN. Dr. Shipler really understands the challenges and barriers that poor people face...the complications, anxieties, impossibilities, humiliations, that all work together and magnify each other to keep a person that is in poverty in poverty for good.

If anyone out there has gone from making six figures to making nothing to being homeless, you know what I am talking about. You cannot get a job without clothes. You cannot get clothes without a job. You have no access to transpo, health care, the myriad other things that you need to get an infrastructure together.

Poverty is a trap that is very difficult to escape once you get into it. Dr. Shipler enunciates it better than anyone.

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High And Dry

The poor are not left high and dry in our society, but rather, are left to forage along the waterfront where the water is murky and polluted and where they are susceptible to the odd storm surge now and then. "The Working Poor" is an important recollection and analysis of the lives of the poor, lives whose numbers are far greater than many may realize. David Shipler has gone into great depth to document their stories, to build empathy for people who cannot afford the luxury of even a moment's escape from their precarious struggles to live. Those who do escape often do so through drugs or alcohol, and even then sometimes find the character to overcome their despair.

If there is a consistent theme in this book, a theme beyond the ubiquity of poverty in our society, it is that it is hard enough to be poor without society making it harder yet. The monetary costs of being poor are magnified for those without money: check cashing fees; inabilities to maintain bank accounts; poor public transportation; paper-laden bureaucracies; demands by people with money for cheap goods and labor such that the minimum wage remains below the poverty level and illegal immigrants are tolerated as long as they work cheaply and do not try to access to our social services. Not every poor person is a Dickensian hero, but many are. Just a little efficient help is all they might need. Our social services are inefficient. While our inept political parties argue over the role of government in a just society, the poor must navigate through layer upon layer of ridiculous waste in order to gain the minimum benefit available. There is a higher cost to society from poverty than the tax dollars necessary to address the problem comprehensively. As Shipler documents, there are now four and five generations of people who have suffered through our disgraceful system; they have imprinted both dependency and inadequacy and cannot be salvaged inexpensively.

"The Working Poor" does a good job of building empathy for the poor among the empathetic, but it does nothing to draw hard-line conservatives out of their boot-strap superiority. Instead, conservatives need to be shown the true costs of poverty in real dollars; dollars that in some way ultimately come out of their own pockets-taxes or no taxes. Shipler does not achieve this. His ideals are high but his writing is dry; in page after page he documents the hard reality of poverty, like an investigative reporter, but then he throws in the odd metaphor or narrative device-he tries to create story, but without success. "The Working Poor" is packed with important information and deep research but is difficult to read. For a more readable book on this topic, try Barbara Ehrenreich's "Nickel and Dimed".

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Very important

This is one of the most important books for all Americans to read.

not liberal or conservative

a wonderful companion book to "nickel and dimed", shipler's presentation approaches the troubles of the american low income household from neither the conservative nor the liberal camp. balancing stories of substance abuse and complicated serial single parenting situations with the difficulties of underfunded social programs, distressingly inadequate household incomes with the tough choices faced by business owners, shipler presents an admirably equitable picture.

reviews: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, page 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15

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