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When writing a book that person is faced with not only the vulnerability of expressing their opinions, but also the acceptance of what another person’s opinion might be from reading the book. In fact critics have a very strong influence on what a person will take in when reading a book. Their critique will determine whether that person will take the time to buy and read the work that author spent many months or even years to write. “While agreeing with Shiplers points of the working poor, I also agree with the critics’ critique of the non-working poor who live at poverty in America and the faults in the lack of a broader study.”
Joel Schwartz, a critic who took the time to read Shiplers book, The Working Poor, to tell the world his opinion
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Elizabeth begins explaining to the readers how Shipler set out and interviewed many different types of people who live at the poverty level. Accordingly she defines how hard it is not to be moved by the heartbreaking reality of what people go through. Elizabeth undergoes to direct attention to how Shiplers book was not only geared to the reality of why people live in poverty due to personal behavior but also to the fact that some of the issues are due to the structure of the economy. “Throughout the book he frequently returns to his theme that policy solutions to the problems of the working poor must address both individual behavior and structural economic factors as they are inherently intertwined.” (Davis, Elizabeth “The Working Poor: Invisible In America” Journal Of Financial Counseling & Planning 15.2 (2004) 103-104. Academic search Complete. Web. 28 Sept.2015.) Davis pulls out many details from Shiplers book The Working Poor Analyzing it chapter by chapter. While finding fault both in the person’s personal behavior, lack of education, and the system 's inability to successfully help a person out of poverty. Davis points out that Shipler states that even though those issues are present many children in poverty are doomed from the beginning because of the lack of support from their parents. “But throughout the book, he also finds fault with parents, who, for lack of parenting skills, depression or immaturity, fail to give their children the best start in life.” (Davis, Elizabeth “The Working Poor: Invisible In America” Journal Of Financial Counseling & Planning 15.2 (2004) 103-104. Academic search Complete. Web. 28 Sept.2015.) Even though Davis was engaged with many of Shiplers arguments that make the working poor more visible she fails to see that his argument is substantial due to
Ehrenreich’s use of statistical information also proves to her audience that she in fact has done her research on this topic. She admits that poverty is a social topic that she frequently talks about. She researched that in 1998 the National Coalition for the Homeless reported that nationwide on average it would take about a wage of $8.89 to afford a one bedroom apartment and that the odds of common welfare recipients landing a job that pays such a “living wage” were about 97 to 1. Ehrenreich experiences this statistic in first person when she set out job hunting in Key West, Florida when she applied to 20 different jobs, ranging from wait tables to housekeeping, and of those applications, zero were responded to.
In the book Nickel and Dimed On (not) Getting By in America the author Ehrenreich, goes under cover as a minimum wage worker. Ehrenreich’s primary reason for seriptiously getting low paying jobs is to see if she can “match income to expenses as the truly poor attempt to do everyday.”(Ehrenreich 6) Also Ehrenreich makes it extremely clear that her work was not designed to make her “experience poverty.”(6) After completing the assignment, given to her by an editor, she had planned to write an article about her experience. Her article purpose intended to reach the community that is financially well off and give them an idea how minimum wage workers deal with everyday life. It also illustrated to the Economist of the harsh reality in the ultra-competitive job environment and how some one in a low paying career cannot survive. Ehrenreich’s motives gave her the tools to experience poverty from a statistical standpoint, but kept her from experiencing the problems poor people face everyday in life. The insight to the fact that maybe a person on welfare needs to be there not because they do not work hard enough but because the way society is setup they are going to be doomed to from the beginning. For example, her personal experiences described gives the reader knowledge that unless you are “Superman” you can almost never work enough to get ahead in life, and you would not have enough time to “go to college” to gain the education for a higher paying job. The first person point-of-view personalizes the book and that allowed me to be drawn into the storyline and plot completely. Some ways she handled situations angered me. I did not like a few parts of the book , they seemed to be confusing, but all these attributes in the end showed a human spirit flaws and all.
In The Working Poor: Invisible in America, David K. Shipler tells the story of a handful of people he has interviewed and followed through their struggles with poverty over the course of six years. David Shipler is an accomplished writer and consultant on social issues. His knowledge, experience, and extensive field work is authoritative and trustworthy. Shipler describes a vicious cycle of low paying jobs, health issues, abuse, addiction, and other factors that all combine to create a mountain of adversity that is virtually impossible to overcome. The American dream and promise of prosperity through hard work fails to deliver to the 35 million people in America who make up the working poor. Since there is neither one problem nor one solution to poverty, Shipler connects all of the issues together to show how they escalate each other. Poor children are abused, drugs and gangs run rampant in the poor neighborhoods, low wage dead end jobs, immigrants are exploited, high interest loans and credit cards entice people in times of crisis and unhealthy diets and lack of health care cause a multitude of problems. The only way that we can begin to see positive change is through a community approach joining the poverty stricken individuals, community, businesses, and government to band together to make a commitment to improve all areas that need help.
Living in poverty as a lower class individual can be very stressful, anxious, and very little to no resources in order to survive for their own needs, as a person and also the needs of their family on a daily basis. Most, individuals who may live in poverty in the U.S. are single mothers who have children to raise on their own. In addition, to all single mothers, who can relate to the needs of working multiple jobs, and occasionally are going to school and getting a higher education; is not an easy job. Single mothers their first priority is to provide the needs of their living conditions and provide all of the needs of their own children. The following article “Angela Whitiker’s Climb” (2005), by Isabel Wilkerson was a case study
In The Working Poor: Invisible in America, David K. Shipler describes about the lives of United States citizens who live within poverty. He highlights the U.S.’s disregard for its working poor, the nature of poverty, and the causes of poverty faced by low-wage earners. Shipler performs an amazing job with describing the factors that play their parts into the lives of U.S. citizens who live are poor and within poverty.
In Barbara Ehrenreich’s, “Nickel and Dimed On (Not) Getting By in America,” she emphasizes how difficult it is for the lower class to earn a living. As a middle class worker, she wondered what it was like to work as a lower class. Would she be able to get by? She decided to create a social expe...
In the article Paul Groski tells about a high school teacher struggling to connect with her low-income students. The teacher Janet loves her kids but assumes they are just lazy. By assuming this she is agreeing that poor kids have a certain culture about them. Many others also think the same, that poor people have a certain culture to them. The fact is that students living in poverty do not have the same benefits as a wealthier family. Facts show that most kids in low-income houses have at least one parent who is employed and works full time year round. Having jobs that do not pay as much makes it hard to support a family working part time. That is why a wealthier family works fewer hours than the average poor family. Many teacher’s like Janet also believe the parents of the less wealthy kids are uninvolved are unmotivated to help their kids. Poor Parent’s want their kids to succeed just as a much as a richer Childs parents do. Many poor parents’ work night time jobs and cannot afford to pay for public transportation. This probably explains why Janet does not see many parents at the...
After substantial decreases in the 1990s, poverty rates stopped their decline in 2000 and have actually started to again creep upward. The great conundrum of how one simultaneously alleviates the multiple causes of poverty has become a central obstacle to poverty reduction. Into this debate comes author David Shipler, a former New York Times Pulitzer Prize winner, with an aptly titled look at the state of poverty in America today, The Working Poor. Shipler's book is more anecdotal and descriptive than analytical and prescriptive. Yet it is a valuable portrait of poverty in America, just as Michael Harrington's landmark book, The Other America, was in 1962. While he does not offer many concrete solutions, Shipler provides readers with an intimate glimpse of the plight of the working poor, whose lives are in sharp contrast to the images of excess w...
Poverty has been a growing problem in America, and it most likely will never stop being one. Someone who is identified as being in poverty lives beneath the poverty line determined by the Federal government. The poverty line in 2015 for a family of four was $24,250. These are the people who are really considered poor. Poverty isn’t just a problem in the United States; in fact, other countries struggle just as much, if not more, than the United States does. Many people struggle to keep themselves above the government’s poverty line, shown by the fact that the percent of poor people in America hasn’t drastically changed over the years. However, it is possible to get out of, and ultimately stay out of, poverty.
Wilson, William J. "Jobless Poverty." The Inequality Reader: Contemporary and Foundational Readings in Race, Class, and Gender. Ed. David B. Grusky and Szonja Szelenyi. 2md ed. Boulder, CO: Westview, 2011. 159-69. Print.
Shipler, David K. “The Working Poor: Invisible In America”. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004.
People are often faced with many challenges that force them into poverty, which often is out of their control. A person that lives in poverty has the ability to take hold of their lives and go on to become productive is inspiring to me as a student of the social work cohort. Striving to become a social worker and reading this book allowed me the insight of the different people that I will encounter on a daily basis. As a social worker I will come intact with a variety of people that live in poverty, as well as some that do not. The people that I will encounter will be recovering addicts, people that are faced with unemployment that are struggling with paying bills or providing food for their families. Another thing that stays with me is the few that can live just above the poverty line, as well as the many that live in poverty daily. Advocating, counseling, or educating is one area of social work that I will have to provide for clients. In thinking about this, there are many services that can help individuals and family. These services only aid the persons and will not take them out of the condition known as poverty. Families fall in and out of poverty easily during their life time. With that being said, there are families that receive a much needed hands up, which allows them to fall out of poverty. But the fear of poverty looms constancy at their doors. One of the most important things that a person that lives in poverty can do is to strive for a better education. With a higher education there are more opportunities for advancement within the work force. The advancements that are rewarded with a higher degree of education will enable poverty stricken families to a better way of living. Which will provide a higher income, medical insurance for health problems, better education, and better housing opportunities. This is another area that my studies will enhance my ability when working as a social worker.
Next, Herbert J. Gans’ essay, “The Uses of Poverty: The Poor Pay All”, is extremely important in the analysis of the frontline documentary. Gans has a bit of a different approach on poverty and the poor. For example, he says, “Today, poverty is more maligned than the political machine ever was; yet it, too, is a persistent social phenomenon.” Basically, he argues that the poor are a very important part in society. He goes on to explain different functions of poverty. First, he states that the existence of poverty ensures that society’s dirty work will be done. Society in some ways forces the poor to do these jobs because they almost always don’t have the choice, and they make them do these at low wages. This was one of the hard things
In 1998, Barbara Ehrenreich, a prominent and prolific journalist in Florida, posed an interesting question to her editor: “How does anyone live on the wages available to the unskilled” (Ehrenreich, 2001, p. 1). In this idea, Ehrenreich set out on a journey to discover just how “the other half” lived on the low wages that they receive. During her project, Ehrenreich set out playing the role of a divorcee hoping to re enter the workforce by taking on the task of finding an unskilled, low paying job in hopes to see just how the poorer class made it with such low pay. Throughout the book, Ehrenreich takes jobs that pay typically between 5to 7 dollars per hour. It is interesting to look into how the attitude of Ehrenreich changes in respect to the
Do the poor in this country have a choice not to be poor? Do the less fortunate have the same access to opportunities as the middle and upper classes? Do government programs designed to help the impoverished actually keep them in the lower ranks? These are all difficult and controversial questions. Conservatives and Liberals constantly battle over these issues in our state and federal governments. Local and national news media provide limited insight to the root causes and effects of the nation’s poor. There is obviously no simple solution to resolve the plight of these often forgotten citizens. Most of us associate poor as being in a class below the poverty line. In fact there are many levels of poverty ranging from those with nothing, to those with enough to survive but too little to move up. I believe many of our nation’s poor are so by their own doing. I will share observations and personal experiences to support the argument that being poor often is a result of individual choice. One needs merely inspiration and perspiration to move up the socio-economic ladder in the United States. We live in the land of opportunity where anyone with the drive and determination to succeed often can.