Who couldn't enjoy anything written by David Shipler?
The weaving of personal stories with journalism/objective data & trends is important. It allows me to see different angles, and not necessarily in agreement/objection - but varied understanding of poverty in the United States.

Not in the book, but i now believe the idea of a social welfar state can never work in the U.S.; so long as our federal/state/local jurisdiction laws are so fragmented any attempt to distribute wealth through the state will utterly fail.

I have recommended this book to friends, and will mail my paper copy to a friend who is a director (on the board) of a non-profit. ( )

Let me begin by saying this book was not an easy read for me. The author holds little back in describing the lives of the working poor, which can feel depressing, unsettling, and at times even hopeless.

Nevertheless, David Shipler's The Working Poor is a powerful lesson of empathy. He forces his readers to see life through the eyes on those on margins of society. His goal is to highlight America's disregard for the working poor and make visible those we often overlook. Each chapter focuses on a different barrier for those at the financial bottom, painting a picture of the nature of poverty and the issues that keep so many down. However, he does so, not as much from the ivory tower of academics but rather through interviews with people from all over the country. Throughout the book, Shipler tells people's stories, describing what life is like being poor. Poverty is not simply because of bad decisions (although this is definitely a contributor). Nor is it simply the consequence of a corrupt system. The reasons for poverty are intensely complex, and only through a holistic system of supports (including kinship, housing, healthcare, transportation, education, a fair wage, etc.) does anyone rise from poverty.

The lessons he writes about are for all to consider. And sadly, those who need to hear this message the most will not read this book. Nevertheless, for a superb summary, look to: http://tamarackcommunity.ca/downloads/vc/work_poor_invisible_in_US.pdf
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If you don't know much about poverty, this book may prove useful to you, but go in with eyes open. Shipler is at his best when he's letting the poor folks he speaks to speak for themselves. However, he is very much a liberal, and while he's talking with poor people we also get sympathetic interviews with bosses, managers, job trainers, "tough love" social workers, and the like. He praises people who shape themselves (and allow themselves to be shaped) into well-behaved, obedient workers set on climbing into higher levels of workplace hierarchy. His solution for the plight of the working poor is very much reformist and government-centered - the poor should overwhelm the rich at the voting booth, and his critique of how successful that has been/could be is nonexistent. The answer comes not from below - from poor people organizing themselves and building power - but from government programs, corporations, politicians, and benevolent gentry such as himself and his target audience. Capitalism needs to be changed, but is essentially good. It depends on poverty - Shipler says so quite uncritically - the issue for him is that the poor are treated better and given the opportunity to get ahead so others may replace them. If any of this made you cringe, you might be better off finding something with a little more teeth. ( )

ok so i liked this book. it is mass-market muckraking. the solutions at the end assume a market economy (which is totally safe for mass-market i guess!) so it ends up being a set of harrowing tales of life in or near poverty with the end result being, "well, it's all connected, so we need more funding for ... everything." which like yes! but also, hey, a living wage? he almost-kinda-doesn't really mention the possibility that walmart etc. paying wages as low as they can possibly get away with because the social safety can and will and does step in with food stamps and other subsidies that make this possible! so work can be an answer, it is not THE answer, you know?

our economy is utterly fucked and by couching his solutions within the system after so much (deserved!) hand-wringing about the Life of the Poor, it left me cold.

it didn't mean to be more than this, this, this, told a dozen different ways: "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 SO understand the impulse to set context and propose solutions but they were so tepid! agh! anyway, read this. anecdotal evidence is powerful. ( )

Very touching and poignant, this book will tug at your heartstrings. It is a call to action for a wide span of problems that plague the destitute and impoverished, especially those in America, since that is the main focus of the book. Some people do want to work but lack the job skills necessary to be marketable, or they have a string of bad luck, or they made some terrible choices. Whatever the case may be, digging out of the hole called poverty is much harder than it sounds.

Politicians on both the right and the left of the divide might have some ideas, but Shipler is here to tell you that problems can't be generalized to a whole population. Perhaps they say that the person should just "get a job," but without soft skills, hard skills and contacts already in the labor force, that is a daunting task. Even if someone does get a job, it is hard to live off of 7 dollars an hour, and in most cases that puts people off of even trying, since welfare is just easier. Not because they don't want to work, but in some cases, it jeopardizes everything they were trying for.

However, this can't be waved away by raising wages, because as Shipler points out, raising the wages forces the prices up because that money to pay the workers has to come from somewhere. This leads to a massive sweep throughout the economy that puts people back where they started. People won't be able to buy the dresses they sew or the cars that they make.

You could merely get people education, but it isn't very easy to educate people that are hungry. You could give them food stamps, but that won't ensure that the right sort of food enters their mouths. You could educate them on the food they need to eat, but it's difficult to communicate across a language barrier or a racial divide. It might be that the children of these people can learn English better and take advantage of citizenship to the US, but it doesn't change the fact that the slum they live in has terrible schools. The terrible schools would like to get better funding and spend more time with students, but when you have 40 students to a classroom it is difficult to focus on one. Also schools have the whole standardized test thing to follow, and they just can't devote that much energy to the individual. Not to mention the fact that school funding is based on property values.

So basically, this is a horrible problem with no clear cut solution. Now the example in the above paragraph isn't to say that only non-white immigrants are stuck in poverty, far from it... that was only an example of the problems affecting these people.

Anyway, I recommend this book. It is quite touching and good. ( )