The Working Poor: Invisible in America

review

When i first started reading this book, i thought it was going to be one of those boring books, that talks about how much people make, and a bunch of numbers that i didnt care to read about. I was definitely proved wrong. It really gives you a different perspective on the economy and poverty. There are a large majority of people out there that go to work everyday just to barely get by. I enjoyed this book because in reality you always hear how well off people are, how they have these good paying jobs, and for once its a book talking about how the lower class is surviving and the stories behind the faces you see everyday. It shows how no matter who you are, everyone has there failures in life, some bigger than others, but it doesnt mean you can't overcome them and still set out to be the best you are able to be. The life stories in this book are inspiring and touching,it makes you think twice about how you view someone. It lets you know how the American System works, how screwed up it is, and how most companies will try and get away with paying there workers as little as possible. Nothing will ever be changed, unless we as a nation try and do something to change it ourself.

2 out of 3 people found this review helpful.

Not bad

I honestly do not remember much about this book just a couple of months after reading it. I guess that says enough about it.

1 out of 3 people found this review helpful.

A reviewer

What the reader must consider is that all too often the workers Shipler speaks of are worse off than those they serve. There is a very good chance that if a worker at the hotel you stay in, restaurant you eat at, or the Walmart,Lowe's,Home Depot,etc. you shop at has that job as their only income with no spouse to help, pension,side business, investments,inheritance,etc. they may be struggling to have a basic place to live, eat or maintain a car. I know several who have lived out of motels or their cars or skip meals or drive cars illegally not because they want to but because they cannot afford not to. The employers mentioned pay low, usually offer little or no overtime and have bonus plans that amount to little practical help. Many people in these jobs are subject to restricted job opportunities or are facing the hostility so endemic to workers over 40 in the marketplace and are as such captive workers for these businesses. Many of these workers have most impressive backgrounds but are simply out of luck and forced to help customers who are light years beyond them in financial stability.

1 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

The problem cannot be overstated!

This is an excellent,well-written book! Companies often do not pay or offer good benefits because of poor profits but consider this: 1)1 car repair, 2 hours with an attorney, or the deductible on some employee health plans can equal most if not the entire 40 hour week paycheck for a Walmart,Menard's, Home Depot, Target, Lowe's,Days Inn,Holiday Inn,Shaws,McDonalds,Wendy's,7-11,regal Cinema,Blockbuster Video,Citizens or Bank of America and many,many more employees. 2)Companies are now integrating productivity,timekeeping and scheduling software together.By having select employees work harder and harder and harder, the productivity expectations go up and up causing fewer people to be working and servicing customers. Witness Lucent Technologies, Home Depot and others and you will see the trend. 3) Employees of Dunkin Donuts and Home Depot and more do not get regular employee discounts.Nor do they get commissions on sales. 4) Some companies such as a major retailer permit ongoing harassment by not balancing workloads(making some individuals work much harder than others)to skew productivity data,ultimately ending in job loss and poorer service to customers 5) Many employers in the USA apparently feel the worker should be happy to eat at all or have a home at all for their efforts at work. Does American business and policymakers care about their workers? Why do some companies allow hard dedicated workers to be harassed and languish while their detractors have virtual no show jobs? 6) More and more companies are using and implementing 'demerit' or 'point' systems for any deviation from work schedules no matter what the reason. Take an extra 1/2 hour to help a customer at a major retailer and the employee suffers because of it. Why are companies applying military discipline on civilian workers? Ponder this when you walk into a major retailer. 7) Why do businessmen allow salary multiples in the hundreds,thousand or tens of thousands to every dollar earned by a low -level employee? When is enough enough? The bible tells us when plowing our fields to leave some left over for the poor. Are businessmen doing this? 8)In Deuteronomy every 7 years debts should be extinguished. But our revolving credit system is based on years upon years of payback time all the while generating substantial interest and fees. Our system is designed to mask deceptions in the true modern poverty level by allowing people to acquire credit to offset income deficiences and perpetuating the illusion of supplemental income for DECADES.Do not address the poverty level and people will absorb the hit with credit. The country looks much more solid financially and egos are boosted for bragging rights as we point fingers at the poor nations of the world.

1 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

A job very well done!

Mr. Shipler is as interesting to listen to as to read! It is quite apparent that the federal poverty level is not accurate to conceal the continued downward spiral of the what was once the middle class. The average pay for an employee of walmart Lowe's Target or Home Depot is probably what the minimum wage should be.Many companies overstate the value of benefits to employees to exaggerate their 'overall value', a combination of wages plus benefits(many of which the employee cannot afford to partake of) which makes even your average retail worker look like they are 'doing good' but in reality are not. I know of many who barely have enough to eat and some who have been homeless while working(working very hard i might add) let alone save for retirement or a home. Until America wakes up to the suffering within it, the ranks will continue to grow with functionally poor workers.

1 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

Whats holding back americas poor

As I read about the many stories of poverty and suffering, in this book. I realized that some times the hard work and the dreams of success are some times not enough to stay out of poverty in America. This book portrays the poor as people who either have made very bad chooses in life or have just given up all together, with the occasional person who works hard and is over powered by sickness or other misfortune. I would like to believe that there are more people who have worked hard but have come across difficulties along the way, forcing them into poverty. The points made in the book are still very interesting and worth taking a look at. I would recommend this book to someone interested in the learning more about the roles of the poor in our economy, or about the politics involved in the poor of america.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Esther

A good message people work so hard but get so little

Highly Recommended--Reality lies within its pages!!

The Working Poor by David K. Shipler, really explains how people in America that are on the border of the poverty line or under the federal poverty line struggle to maintain an honest living. While some people in the middle class or upper class take things for granted we never stop to realize that some people who really have nothing in comparison are struggling to stay alive. Although some of the people made some bad choices in the past, this book describes their struggles to try to get back on a steady route. But they are average people black, white, asian, latinos who are trying to earn an honest living and trying to pay their bills and work full time rather than go on welfare. So I highly recommend you read this book because in the end you will be able to understand and follow the lives of a few people and were they are now.

You much check it out!!!

While reading, I realized that many hard working people have to go through suffering to survive in this world. It does not matter where you come from or where you live, everyone has their ups and downs. This book portrays the lives of people holding themselves to not fall into poverty or who are in poverty. Either they made wrong choices or they had no other choice in life. The people in the book have to live from paycheck to paycheck. I recommend this book because the author analyzes the situations of real working poor people and makes you think about what this people have to go through every single day.

An Informative Book

David Shipler does a great job in terms of investigating those who work but are still poor. He shows that poverty can affect anyone. This book reaffirms the insights that most Americans have, that the solution to our economic and social woes lay somewhere between the Republican and Democratic platform.

Well-written and insightful!

Most scholarly works are dull and I read the parts that are interesting and relevant to what I am looking for. This book is different. It is extremely well-written with a balance of factual knowledge and stories of real people, experiencing life. This is one of the few books of this genre that I have read cover-to-cover. Love it and highly recommend it! If you work with persons living in poverty or know someone living in poverty, this is a must read!

America's Backbone

TThis book truly shows the irony of the working class that is the least acknowledged here in America and around the world. Even the beginning of the book recognizes the true colors of America and the everyday irony that we see and will continue to in the future. The simple irony how those who wash cars don't own any cars at all and probably never will, clerks who file for cancelled checks have about two dollars in their own account. However, this book demonstrates so many different examples about the struggles of the working class both legal and illegal residents here in the U.S. It's amazing what the book brings to the table, it's the reality that we see almost anywhere we go that has any type of employees. The grocery store, Walmart, construction at any site, fruit pickers, and factory jobs. What we don't hear about is the sick twist of the story, such as how so many greedy companies take so much advantage of the humble and the ignorant. Shipler explains all the different kind of struggles about the work that barely gets people by and the work that still leaves many homeless here in one of the richest nations in the world. Many natural-born citizens here in the United States dream of being able to work at a job that pays ten dollars an hour, and to many that's the most money an hour that they will ever make in their life. The sad truth is what makes this book so great because it continues to remind us about how bad things can really be, but because we are not all aware of this it is difficult to change the way corporations want it to be for their money's sake. As soon as I read the first line of this book I couldn't set it down, it was impossible to do so. I already had somewhat of a good idea of this corrupted system of ours but not to the extent that I read about. It does not have to stay that way but it is very difficult to change due to the fact that those with all the money in the world keep it this way for the sake of their greed. I can definitely see why they call these workers invisible, because to many others, they don't exist since nobody knows they exist. For the majority it's just the person that mows your lawn, babysits your kids all day, and works to the bone on that stitching on the new shirt you bought at Anchor Blue. However, this is nothing we ever stop to think about because if it doesn't affect you directly then it does not matter to you. Read this book and I can assure you that you will think about the issues presented in this book on a daily basis whether you want to or not, it's simply the effect that this book has on the reader.

Eye-Opening

David K. Shipler tackles this difficult subject with compassion and honesty. This is not one of those books that is boring to read, with endless facts and figures. Shipler engages his readers with his conversational style of writing. He introduces us to some of the working poor, tells us of their hardships and their victories.

Most people are not poor because they are stupid or lazy. Many of us, in fact, are one bad choice or one serious illness away from being part of the working poor. This book sheds light on a subject that has too long been swept under the carpet. I believe everyone in the U.S. should read this one.

I´m Impressed By All Readers Reviews !

Presently The U.S. Is Facing Economic BailOut Of The Big Money Entities Resulting From 'InAppropriate Mortgage and Credit Practices'. I am looking forward to reading this book. Thank you for the time that all of the readers put into submittng a review on this subject...

0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Take some of this into account

This is a great work and long overdue! To add to Mr. Shipler: 1)A $1.00 gas price hike to someone making $20,000 per year equals a much greater % increase than the same hike to someone making $100,000 or more. Increasing costs of things we need hurt the working poor much more than than the higher income levels, something not taken into account by companies in their pay systems. The major retailers do not take the increasing cost of living into account all too often. The cost of commuting at lower income levels is a greater cost than for those at higher levels. 2) Companies like Home Depot broadly advertise expert help at their stores but do not offer training to the level of expertise customers request when coming in, setting them the employees up for failure and customers for disappointment. This reflects subsequently on wages and sales. 3) The average car repair probably absorbs 1 or more average paychecks for a typical Target or Walmart customer. 4) To be healthy financially economists say 1 week' pay should equal the monthly housing cost. In states such as Massachusetts or New Hampshire the average weekly pay based on say a 1 bedroom apartment average rent should be perhaps $650-1,000 per week using this formula. Now how many of the available jobs pay this or greater? The majority of your employees in the retail, hospitality,restaurant businesses and more make mcuh less than this. 5)Those who often work poor paying jobs without major struggles are those who do not really need them financially they have spouses or partners who have incomes, have inheritances or pensions or other supplemental income. Those say in retail who have that as their only income are often borderline homeless and hungry.

Will Mr. Shipler PLEASE write another book??

This is an outstanding book on the plight of the majority of the American population subject to the economy. The rich are not subject to the economy. To add to his observations: Companies today are increasingly striving to reduce workforce by use of software that is linked to work scheduling, productivity and employee timekeeping. An example of this can be seen in a major home improvement retailer. At this retailer, if an individual employee works harder and harder, the software establishes a performance parameter which after a period of averaged productivity raises the expected productivity per hour per sxheduled employee, causing increasing workforce reductions and poor customer service while penalizing, not rewarding the very hard worker. Companies such as Kronos assist with this deterioration of the domestic workforce. As for credit and its use/abuse--income shortfalls due to a grossly understated cost of living in the USA and a very outdated federal poverty level shift the burden of failed fiscal policies onto the average citizen who is also subject to job market stability factors not under their control. If you must carry a debtload to offset income shortfalls for a basic,minimally-acceptable lifestyle standard then lose your job, your personal credit suffers while fiscal decisionmakers have no accountability.The credit impairment affects future job prospects and so on in a downward spiral.

A public service performed!

This book does a service by given credibility to the hardships of the lower level paid workers in American society. Many of these employers,such as those in the hospitality and retail sectors thrive on employer markets for job seekers, acquiring highly skilled and/or educated workers for lousy pay whose backgrounds add to the financial health of the organization as an intangible asset,intellectual property on the corporate balance sheet. The exploitation of these workers is shameful to America! In Massachusetts for example hotel workers are not entitled to overtime above 40 work hours per week. At retailers such as Home Depot, there is a question about the timing of performance evaluations and ' issues' which affect raises attached to those performance evaluations. In addition, there is a question about whether such employers tacitly approve of systematic harassment at the business unit or store levels. America in general has a serious credibility issue with respect to the humanistic side of corporate America or lack thereof. All one has to do is look at turnover rates and lost profitability as a result of employees being hired then quitting before they become fully functional and contributing. How much money does Home Depot, Walmart,Lowe's, Holiday Inn and so on lose in theprocess of hiring,training and employing workers who leave before the training and orientation investment produces ROI? What does it say about us as a culture when we do business with companies that project a people-friendly workplace that is often anything but?

Eye-opening analysis

And you thought you had it rough! This book sheds light on what the author describes as the forgotten, invisible worker in America, painting a vivid picture of the scenarios that contribute to the sometimes seemingly inescapable plight of the unskilled work force. Included in the discourse are facts and anecdotes about migrant workers, gender discrimination, harassment, and the inverse relationship between working and receiving necessary government assistance. As a person who really hasn't had to want for much, I came across many sad realities (for instance, that those who have grown up poor often have far-less-than-perfect smiles due to neglect, and as a result, a lot of employers simply won't hire them, even though they desperately need jobs). In short: a thorough, well-written, enlightening read.

Packed with Knowledge!

In spite of grueling hours and brutal conditions, hard work is no guarantee of prosperity in the American economy. So writes journalist David Shipler in this exhaustive study of the folks left behind by the American economic boom. Shipler talks to factory workers in New Hampshire, farm workers in North Carolina and garment workers in California. He paints a picture of a predatory economy with little room for the unsophisticated and unskilled. This work, which was nominated for a prestigious National Book Critics¿ Circle Award, is ambitious in its scope and compelling in its detail. Some readers, however, might chafe at Shipler¿s refusal to accept either liberal or conservative formulas: after presenting ample evidence of the poor¿s own culpability for their plight, however partial, he blames both, an indifferent society and family dysfunction for poverty. We strongly recommend this sweeping study to employers and to anyone interested in the seemingly intractable gap between rich and poor.

Poison for the Underemployed

This book is poison for the underemployed - If you adopt this attitude about the workplace you will never rise above poverty. I would only recommend this book to rich socialists and their children who like to stereotype working people.

0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.