My Thoughts on the Working Poor

My Thoughts on "The Working Poor"

The working poor is a book about the people that live and survive at the bottom of the financial food chain. The author, David K. Shipler, introduces the concept of how, the people who serve you food at a fast food place might not have enough money to feed their own family, or the person that washes your car probably doesn't own one. This is not something that we notice or think about on a daily basis because it is not something that we want to admit is true.

Regardless of if we admit it or not, not many Americans live (or can even achive) the supposed American Dream of having a nice car, big house, and well paying job. Most have to take care of a family, but some can't even manage that much. Many Americans live invisible in America, they suffer from the effects of poverty and work hard, incredibly hard, to get out of poverty for themselves, and their families. Shipler has gathered a plethora of stories about those Americans through; interviews with them, their families, friends, and employers. Shipler makes good use of these interviews and captures all the aspects of what it means to be in poverty, and why they are stuck in destitution.

The stories in this book are very gripping and filled emotional potential. However, to my disappointment, Shipler did a poor job of using this potential. As a result, the book had a tendency to be very dry and 'long winded', and read much like a textbook. there were no creative adjectives or interesting representations to show how these people were living or how they felt. He just gave us the information in a very 'to-the-point' manner. Now, even though I dislike his writing style it is very obvious that Shipler cares for the people he interviewed. He went back to find them and see if they had bettered their lives, and if anyone didn't give them the credit they deserved, he would defend them till the end(pg. )

One point that Shipler talks about, and one that I particularly enjoyed, is the "American Myth" and the "American Anti Myth", and how it weaves through the lives of these individuals. Shipler states that the American Myth "still supposes that any individual from the humblest origins can climb to well-being" (Shipler, pg.5), but the thing is, this ideal is somewhat out dated. Sure, that version of the American dream was true sixty years