Work Doesn't Work: From The Working Poor

by David K. Shipler

At the bottom of America’s working world, millions live in the shadow of prosperity, in the twilight of poverty and prosperity. Many are trapped for life in a perilous zone of low-wage work that keeps middle-class comforts and necessities forever beyond their reach despite the often long and hard hours they put in at their jobs, as bank tellers, food service employees, copyeditors, car washers and others. In his authoritative study of how our country has consistently and still is failing its working poor with low wages, diminished benefits and rampant instability, bestselling and Pulitzer Prize-winning author David K. Shipler draws on researched facts and scores of personal testimonies to paint a bleak of the short shrift that so many of us, even in a booming economy, are bound by. A Vintage Shorts Selection. An ebook short.

Genres: Nonfiction, Politics, Sociology

66 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 2, 2018

About the author

David K. Shipler reported for The New York Times from 1966 to 1988 in New York, Saigon, Moscow, Jerusalem, and Washington. He is the author of four other books, including the best sellers Russia and The Working Poor, and Arab and Jew, which won the Pulitzer Prize. He has been a guest scholar at the Brookings Institution, a senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, and has taught at Princeton University, at American University in Washington, D.C., and at Dartmouth College.

Reviews

[Elyse Walters · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Work Doesn’t Work”.... from ‘The Working Poor’ is another David K. Shipler vintage-short-story.

It’s a story about the forgotten America and invisible hardships.
“The man who washes cars does not own one”.

People living behind the shadow of prosperity....
...they serve Big Macs
...find you merchandise at Wal-Mart
...some are drug addicted
...some are homeless
...children malnourished
...sexually abused
...crumbling housing
...sickness
This story is about a few of these people, their families, their failings, and dreams.

Personal mistakes have consequences. Personal achievements yield smaller returns.
Being poor in a rich country may be more difficult to endure than being poor in a poor country.

When the poor or nearly poor are asked to define poverty, they don’t give us a dictionary answer...they don’t only talk about the amount of money in their wallet...but rather what’s in the mind of their hearts:
“Hopelessness” and “Helplessness”.

In this book we read stories about Christie, Kevin, Debra, Caroline, Amber.... each with different challenging hardships....
their monthly payments - wages- their tight budgets- recreation: food & drink....education...
minimum wage jobs...daycare...and how even the smallest errors has large repercussions.

In the meantime, the new millennium arrived in a crescendo of American riches. Everything grew larger: homes, vehicles, stock portfolios, and life expectancy.

“Money may not always cure, but it can often insulate one problem from another”.

What I took away??
A deep appreciation for the *comforts and luxury*.... to be grumpy about silly things:
...standing in lines
...computer problems
...can’t read all the books I want
...wrinkles...
...loss of tight youthful muscle tone.
...having to clean - cook..and clean ‘again’.
etc. etc. etc!
These are GREAT problems!! THESE ARE GOOD PROBLEMS.

...I also took away the reminder that even my small offerings of money, food, clothing, books too, make a little difference.
And giving my heart to listen to understand - care and love makes a difference.
May I continue to give more!!
May book’s like this help us all be better people!

Wishing those who are very poor .... new hope .. new possibilities!!

**NOTE: Just yesterday, I learned Google is putting up $1 billion to fight the housing crisis in The Bay Area.
20,000 new low income homes are in planning designs to be built.
Hallelujah!
I hoped and pray this gifted project it will benefit my friend/friends who experience fear and hopelessness of ‘their’ poverty crisis...every waking day!!
Thank you Google!!

Thank you David K. Shipler for this short and important book...packed-filled with examples after example of just how bleak being poor is!!
I seriously got much more value than the 99 cents I paid for.

[Tammam Aloudat · Rating 4 out of 5]

It never ceases to shock me that poverty is so pervasive in the richest country of the world. We have come to accept, somehow, that there can be poverty. We also have come to live with the demonstrations of such poverty around us and ignore its ironies and contradictions. Passing by someone sleeping on the pavement in Geneva or London or Paris should be a shock that scandalizes us and pushes for something to be done, after all we would be on a pavement in some of the richest places in the world where millionaires and billionaires go around in their lavish lifestyles. Yet, that person sleeping rough is not anymore a shocking seen. We have largely lost our gift of empathy and are able to pass by as if nothing is happening.
David Shipler tries to show us people who we can identify with (i.e. mostly white Americans as opposed to people living in poverty in far away countries) and shows us potent images of how poverty strikes them and how it limits every possible venue to have a dignified life. This is acknowledging that even poverty in a rich country, as harsh as he shows it to us, is less brutal than its sisters in poorer countries.
I believe it was Rutger Brigman in his Utopia for Realists who demonstrated that people afflicted by poverty end up making wrong decisions once and again. The stories in Shipler's book show a similar trend. When people are poor and struggle to come up with a few dollars to survive to the next rent or pay the next bill or get the next meal, it would be difficult to expect them to make the logical efficient decision every time.
I believe we have to get educated about the pervasive poverty that is the result of a brutal capitalist system that would eat the poor and spit their bones for the benefit of the few rich and affluent. This can happen through a good book like this one, or through opening our eyes and seeing the poor in our midst... or even by doing something about it!!

[Bill · Rating 4 out of 5]

A insightful look at the working poor

This excerpt from a longer work takes a look at the cycle of poverty that prevents the working poor from getting ahead in life. They are vulnerable to problems which could be overcome by people with a steady job and a reliable source of income. The author sheds light on the situation via a couple of case studies, two women he interviewed and observed. They are representative of a societal problem about which every American needs to be better informed.

[Nini · Rating 5 out of 5]

Short but powerful. Great writing, but I might not want to reread it in the future, too painful. But that's the reality, on poverty cycle and absence of privilege. It is haunting me when this book mentioned how a small mistake can make big consequences, you can't afford failure otherwise you go back to step one...