The Working Poor: Invisible In America (2005) - Plot & Excerpts
This book... was not an easy read. It can be often a bit depressing or unsettling, if only for the stories of real people that it presents to the reader. With that in mind, it tries to take a good, solid, objective look at the issue of poverty in the U.S. and how this group of people survive from day to day. It doesn't try to follow ideology, but instead just examines the lives of people who fit in this demographic and takes an honest look at what they have to endure and fight against daily. It never comes off as preaching at you or condemning the people in the stories it tells, but instead tries to maintain a neutral perspective and look at problems and possible solutions. As a mark of trying to be objective in its approach, you do get to see stories where there are people who more or less exploit the system, but these are rare. More importantly, you see a number of times where people don't take aid, or actively refuse it, whether it is out of pride, a sense of shame, or just plain ignorance that help is available for them. These people don't know and therefore don't access all of the resources that are available to them, or outright refuse to due to how they were raised and their own beliefs. In one sense this can be refreshing, but in another sense you want to pull your hair out and scream, if for no other reason than that certain services exist to help these people exactly because they have fallen on hard times due to bad luck. While it does offer solutions with regards to how the working poor can be helped, it does so after looking closely at each individual story, a case study of sorts, and using that as a more representative example of the various aspects of being a member of the working poor. There are times when it might sound like it is taking a political tack, but when looked at in a broader light, how some people say that the poor just aren't "working hard enough" or something similar - after reading some of these stories, the average reader may change that assumption.The book approaches the various facets of being a member of the working poor, covering everything from money and work to health and other less-obvious but equally powerful issues that affect the working poor. Some of these issues are things like a lack of basic skills for holding down a job, being unable to interact properly in social settings, or the devastating effects things as being molested and/or abused by family members or others has on those who are in this group. It goes on to cite not how one cause or the other is the culprit, but how more often than not a number of them conspire together to keep those who are in this category locked in, with little hope of getting out. The author then goes on to show how simply addressing one issue will not "fix" things, because once that fix is in place, something else somewhere else is bound to break, and all it takes is for one thing to go wrong and all the progress that was previously made to come undone. Again, there are times when the author does seem to advocate for a political side - but that is only because of the fact that this demographic is quite literally struggling to survive on a daily basis, and often cannot speak for themselves, if for no other reason than out of their sheer lack of awareness of being able to do so. He speaks out against many of those in the structures of power who either demonize or use the working poor as a scapegoat for all the ills of the country, those who would usually say that they just "need to work harder" or that they are working the system. Politicians, corporations, crappy landlords (e.g. slumlords), and other factions who have something to gain from having a cheap, expendable and uneducated labor force that is easily replaceable, all too often unaware and/or ignorant of their rights, with low education, and fighting so hard for their next paycheck to make rent for them and their kids that they can't afford to worry about anyone else. The first chapter alone is a perfect example of this - for many people with easy access to computers and an internet connection (such as some of you reading this review), filing taxes each year can be a pretty simply affair: load up an automated tax program, fill in the numbers from your forms, click a few buttons, and in a few weeks (or days) you get your refund deposited to your account. For the working poor who don't have such easy access to a computer or the internet, and who may not know about cheap/free online tax services, it shows a painful example of how certain large tax-servicing companies use this lack of access to resources, or knowledge, to their advantage. Since the fear of not getting the maximum refund looms over them, and they want to ensure that they get it done right, they will often go to a tax-preparer and pay an exorbitant amount of money to have their taxes done. Want to file electronically? Costs more. No bank account? No problem - for more money, we can set you up with a temp one that uses an ATM card, deducting $2 extra every time you withdraw. The extent to which the tax-preparation companies will nickle-and-dime them for more and more money is appalling. As the book goes on, more and more instances of the working poor being exploited and/or used by others to make money off of them are shown, be it due to their ignorance, their fears, or their lack of access to resources or services. Yet on the other side, there are also inspiring examples of people and organizations who try to help, which helps to balance the otherwise depressing and soul-draining tone of the book at times. Overall, this is a book I would recommend to anyone who cares about things being a bit more equal in this country, issues such as social justice and helping those who are willing to work hard help raise themselves out of the depths of poverty. It offers some good ideas of where one can help out, depending on the web of issues that today's working poor face, and the added awareness of their situation helps one realize that they aren't making it because they're lazy, but because they are up against some serious obstacles. While part of the book offers solutions to help them out, it also offers (in my opinion) a way to help us out as well, by giving us a more in-depth look at their lives, with which we can then use to inform our conversations when discussing the issues that face these people on a daily basis.
I often get into discussions with my father-in-law about the state of the nation, problems facing workers and companies, and especially the role of the government. My father-in-law will often say the phrase, "People just need to work harder" in response to my queries about how to get people out of poverty or dead-end jobs. Well, I heard that phrase one too many times, so I decided to read David Shipler's book to find out if this "American Dream" is as easy to do as it sounds.It's not easy at all. Sure, people can pull themselves up by their bootstraps, but that task requires more than just elbow grease and a little savings these days. When you are at this level, the smallest problem has gigantic ripples throughout your life. Shipler notes throughout the book how each person or family he talks to has had a significant financial downfall due to a series of events. These events are always inextricably connected. For example, a mother of two has a very low-paying job. She needs to drive to her job because the bus won't get her there in time. She also needs to drive her children to the day care center. One day after work, the car does not start. The kids are now at the day care center after hours, thus ringing up an extra bill which she cannot afford. Plus, the car is broken and must be fixed. Plus, she now has no way to get to work on time the next day or to get the kids to the day care.There are numerous other instances of these types of ripple effects in the book. People living paycheck-to-paycheck cannot keep a bank account open due to minimum amount requirements. They often get billed extra fees because they go below the amount. Then they go into debt because they can't pay the extra fee back. And they don't qualify for certain help from organizations or the government because they don't have a bank account because it's been closed due to the lack of a minimum amount in the account.These are the stories of the people who are trying and can't get out of the spiral. Shipler also writes about people who are just flat out lazy. These people play the system, lie, cheat, and steal to get their way, all without working. These people give the working poor a bad name. To me, Shipler's message is that we need to meet these people halfway. If they put forth the effort to get on their feet, we need to help them get the other half. Right now, they have to walk about 98% of that on their own before anyone else steps in.Although being incredibly sad, this was a very good book. It did stray from the topic at hand from time to time, but each new topic was directly related to the troubles the working poor face (lack of healthy diet, no health insurance, lack of good parenting skills, etc.)So now I have to recommend this book to my father-in-law so he can see that it takes more than just "working hard" to pull yourself up by your bootstraps. It's a Sisyphean task.
What do You think about The Working Poor: Invisible In America (2005)?
I've been on a poverty rage lately, and this book was fuel to that fire. A narrative interlaced with dozens of individual stories, this book lays blame everywhere without having to point it out. Shipler stays out of the political fray for the most part. In fact, he mostly stays out of the preaching business, too. He lays out the facts and research, supplements with personal stories, conversations, and following families for years at a time, but mostly allows me to reach my own conclusions.He points out the flaws of the liberal and conservative approaches to poverty, noting that liberals tend to think the problem is anything but the dysfunctional family, and conservatives tend to think it's nothing but the dysfunctional family. Both paradigms are wrong, he asserts, and continues to lay a devastating case for how the poor in America really are invisible.This book read like a novel, and I couldn't put it down. A required reading for my teenaged children, who I want to understand the world around them.
—Justine
My favorite quote: "Workers at the edge of poverty are essential to America’s prosperity, but their well-being is not treated as an integral part of the whole. Instead, the forgotten wage a daily struggle to keep themselves from falling over the cliff. It is time to be ashamed." I thought the perspective Shipler had was fairly balanced between blaming/pointing at circumstances that are not necessarily the working poor's fault (i.e. attending a poorly funded public school with few resources to address a learning disability) and circumstances that the working poor have more control over (i.e. not completing education or job training, turning to drugs and alcohol to self medicate). There are no easy answers, and sometimes one solution only exacerbates others. Business and government can be part of the problem and can also be part of the solution. What Shipler does best in this book is bring a face to the working poor, as many of us, especially in this recession, could easily end up in that visible-invisible part of society.
—Megan
I admit I just started reading this book to see why a local (very wealthy) school district kept having this challenged as a required reading. I also waited until the last minute to read before it had to go back to library so I was skimming the last chapter and skipped the epilogue. that said I found this book very interesting and in some cases. scary. while most of these individuals grew up in poverty and made horrible life choices I realized that in some ways my family could become poor very easily. Shipler, shows how problems compound and make situations that are hard to overcome. it was irritating that he seemed to imply that poverty and being alcoholic and or drug user were expected to go together. almost every example had at least one of those two issues. several had also been sexually abused, which Shipler implied was normal in poverty. he did say that the same issues happen in wealthier families but that they have the resources to get treatment so it doesn't matter as much. he seems to excuse poor personal choices if they can be "blamed" on the environment. he also implies that being poor means that a person can't make good choices. overall it was a book that made me think and would make a good discussion starter.
—Marian
