David Shipler The Working Poor Summary

1994 Words4 Pages

David Shipler’s The Working Poor highlights the struggles of those that are invisible in America. The working poor are those individuals who are forgotten and can be characterized as those working or looking for work in America that cannot make enough to meet their standard living costs (Wicks-Lim, 2012). Shipler states that “nobody who works hard should be poor in America” (Shipler, 2004, 2005, p. 12). The population of the working poor are people of color 17.5 percent are African-Americans and 25.6 percent are Latino (Zhu, 2014). Also, women who are head of their households with children who only have a high school diploma are among the working poor. A study in Montana, looked at the likelihood of being a person becoming among the working …show more content…

12). With a wide range of different working locations, neighborhoods, and different types of employment from factories, restaurants, field workers, daycare centers, retail, and department store clerks. These different industries make up the working poor in America, and Shipler was able to peer into the lives of these workers to better analyze the working poor demographics. Shipler was able to interview several of these workers a few times while others he was able to make relationships with those that he interviewed because he was able to follow them for five to six years to check in on them to see if their livelihood had improved. Shipler refers to those that he interviewed by Carl Sandburg’s phrase “They are tired of wishes, empty of dreams” (Shipler, 2004, 2005, p. 12). He sees that some are some of the working poor are still fighting and are holding on to their dreams even though outside influences and personal complications are making their struggles are harder while others have given up. While reading the Working Poor, it’s visible that Shipler has seen the reality and understands the struggles that are facing the poor, and he wants the rest of …show more content…

Those that were interviewed come from different regions, different industries, and demographics yet many of them have similar struggles that are forcing them to be included in Shipler’s The Working Poor. A few of the problems, that will be discussed include: spending money on non-essential items, struggles of the single working mothers raising families on low wages with poor hours, and workers not having the right skill set or fear of

Show More
Related

  • Analysis Of David K. Shipler's At The Edge Of Poverty

    648 Words  | 2 Pages

    David K. Shipler in his essay At the Edge of Poverty talks about the forgotten America. He tries to make the readers feel how hard is to live at the edge of poverty in America. Shipler states “Poverty, then, does not lend itself to easy definition” (252). He lays emphasis on the fact that there is no single universal definition of poverty. In fact poverty is a widespread concept with different dimensions; every person, country or culture has its own definition for poverty and its own definition of a comfortable life.

    Read More

  • Working Poor By Barbara Ehrenreich Summary

    2835 Words  | 6 Pages

    According to a 1997 report of the National Coalition for the Homeless, “nearly one-fifth of all homeless people are employed in full or part-time jobs”. In the book Nickel and Dimed, On Not Getting by in America, by Barbara Ehrenreich, the author goes undercover in order to investigate and experience first-hand how life is for America’s “working poor”. The “working poor” are defined as individuals who have a full-time job, sometimes more than one, but still cannot afford the basics of shelter, food and adequate healthcare. As one can imagine, this led to many public health concerns. In each of the three locations visited, Ehrenreich realizes that for many, “getting by” in America can sometimes be a daunting task.

    Read More

  • The Working Poor In Nickel And Dimed By Barbara Ehrenreich

    1451 Words  | 3 Pages

    The working poor are those whose incomes fall under a given poverty line. Depending on how one defines "working" and "poverty," someone may or may not be counted as part of the working poor, but even though anyone who may not be counted, each one of them are from the working poor who ultimately don’t earn enough money that is required to survive. Barbara Ehrenreich, a journalist and an author of Nickel and Dimed, is not literally a low-wage worker, she acted as an undercover low wage worker. She establishes and realizes there is not much difference between someone who is professing to exist as a waitress and someone who is waitressing. As well as a documentary 30 Days episode one “Minimum Wage” done by Morgan Spurlock and his fiancee Alex,

    Read More

  • The Glass Castle Stereotypes

    1391 Words  | 3 Pages

    Poverty in America is a very complex issue that can be looked at from many directions. There are a plethora of statistics and theories about poverty in America that can be confusing and at times contradicting. It is important to objectively view statistics to gain a better understanding of poverty and to wade through the stereotypes and the haze of cultural views that can misrepresent the situation.The official poverty line in America begins with a person making at or below $12,060. To calculate the poverty line for a family, an additional $4,180 is added to the base of $12,060 for each additional member(“Federal Poverty Level Guidelines”). According to the last U.S. census, over 45 million or 14.5% of Americans are at or below the poverty line(Worstall). At this level, the U.S. poverty level has not changed much from the 1970s when the government began a “War on Poverty.” However,

    Read More

  • Nickel and Dimed on (Not) Getting by in America

    1305 Words  | 3 Pages

    The book Nickel and Dimed On (Not) Getting by in America, written by Barbara Ehrenreich is a book that relates the experience of how she survived living on poverty-level wages in America as a waitress, maid and a Wal-mart sales associate. Barbara left her comfortable surroundings as a journalist with a Ph.D in biology to work various "unskilled" and "under compensated" jobs in order to achieve, "the old-fashioned kind of journalism". In regards to leaving her comfortable lifestyles for a few months traveling through Florida to Maine and Minnesota, she discovered that people who are paid six to seven dollars an hour did not generate enough income for those who did not want to live outside of a home. The sad reality is that millions of people in America work everyday for those wages and have to just deal with it. The majority opinion is that some poor people are lazy or choose to be that way, when the truth is that individuals work everyday some even two jobs and still cannot make ends meet because of the poverty cycle.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of William T. Vollmann's Poor People

    1056 Words  | 3 Pages

    In the novel Poor People, written by William T. Vollmann asks random individuals if they believe they are poor and why some people are poor and others rich. With the help of native guides and translators, and in some cases their family members, they describe what they feel. He depicts people residing in poverty with individual interviews from all over earth. Vollmann’s story narrates their own individual lives, the situations that surround them, and their personal responses to his questions. The responses to his questions range from religious beliefs that the individual who is poor is paying for their past sins from a previous life and to the rational answer that they cannot work. The way these individuals live their life while being in poverty

    Read More

  • Analysis Of The Working Poor By David Shipler

    1565 Words  | 4 Pages

    In the Working Poor, David Shipler shows the different levels of poverty in the United States. Although many people work every day they still do not have enough money to live their lives comfortably or contently. In chapter 1, Money and Its Opposite, discuss the different people that worked hard their entire lives only to remain in or below the poverty line. For instance, in the book Shipler speaks of the disadvantages that the working poor are susceptible to. Often being taken advantage of from employers that do not give accesses that they are entitled to, the working poor are more likely to be audit than the wealthy, and become victims of cons that point toward money for a small payment, first. The many that live in poverty often overspend.

    Read More

  • Barbara Ehrenreich Nickel And Dimed Analysis

    1459 Words  | 3 Pages

    Poverty and low wages have been a problem ever since money became the only thing that people began to care about. In Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America by Barbara Ehrenreich, she presents the question, “How does anyone live on the wages available to the unskilled?” This question is what started her experiment of living like a low wage worker in America. Ehrenreich ends up going to Key West, Portland, and Minneapolis to see how low wage work was dealt with in different states. With this experiment she developed her main argument which was that people working at low wages can’t live life in comfort because of how little they make monthly and that the economic system is to blame.

    Read More

  • The Reflection Of Barbara Ehrenreich's Nickel And Dimed

    1956 Words  | 4 Pages

    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

    Read More

  • Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996

    2980 Words  | 6 Pages

    Zuberi, Dan. Differences that Matter: Social Policy and the Working Poor in the United. New York: Cornell University Press, 2006.

    Read More

  • Nickel And Dimed Research Paper

    640 Words  | 2 Pages

    Many Americans are still struggling to make ends meet. According to the Census Bureau, 104 million people. A third of all Americans have incomes below twice the poverty line. While many of these people are unemployed, many others are the working poor, people trying to support themselves with low and minimum wage jobs. The task of such workers was taken up by Barbara Ehrenreich in her 2001 book Nickled and Dimed. The book, which recounts her experiences, is important because it offers a gripping, first person account of the real difficulties faced by many Americans today. One way the book illuminates these difficulties is by showing how a full-time low wage salary isn’t enough to pay one’s living expenses. Ehrenreich begins each experiment with significant advantages over many minimum wage workers.

    Read More

  • Occupational Justice: The Framework Of Occupational Justice

    1206 Words  | 3 Pages

    According to the U.S. Census Bureau, in 2014 African Americans held the highest poverty rate of 26%, with Hispanics holding the second highest rate at 24% (DeNavas-Walt & Proctor, 2015). When comparing this to the poverty rates of Whites at 10% and Asians at 12% in 2014, we see that in America, racial and ethnic minorities are more vulnerable to experiencing poverty (DeNavas-Walt & Proctor, 2015). In addition, discrimination is seen between genders among those living in poverty. Family households of a single adult are more likely to be headed by women and are also at a greater risk for poverty (DeNavas-Walt & Proctor, 2015). In 2014, 30.6% of households headed by a single woman were living below the poverty line compared to 15.7% for households headed by a single male (DeNavas-Walt & Proctor, 2015). Many factors such as poor wages for women, pregnancy associations, and the increase of single-woman parented families have impacted the increase of women in poverty. Children are most harshly affected by poverty because for them the risks are compounded, as they lack the defenses and supports needed to combat the toxicity surrounding them. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 21% of all U.S. children (73.6 million children) under 18 years old lived in poverty in 2014 (DeNavas-Walt & Proctor,

    Read More

  • Use of Rhetoric in Nickel and Dime by Barbara Ehrenreich

    1545 Words  | 4 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • The Working Poor: Invisible in America by David K. Shipler

    741 Words  | 2 Pages

    Shipler, David K. The Working Poor: Invisible in America (Vintage). Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. Kindle Edition, 2008.

    Read More

  • Nickel and Dimed On (not) Getting By in America by Ehrenreich

    1365 Words  | 3 Pages

    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 is intended to reach the community that is financially well off and give them an idea of how minimum wage workers deal with everyday life. It also illustrated to the Economist the harsh reality in the ultra-competitive job environment and how someone in a low paying career cannot survive.

    Read More

More about David Shipler The Working Poor Summary

Open Document