If You Came This Way: A Journey Through the Lives of the Underclass

At each stage of their lives—from infant cribs to teen dropouts to welfare dependents to basement shelters for the elderly—the people of the underclass are shunned by the rest of the population, even by the working poor. The cycle is vicious: Underclass children get little help in their own homes (when they have homes); they are shoved aside at school until they drop out like their parents did; they are unable to find decent work without an education; they have children of their own for who...