By Barbara Ehrenreich
The battle to earn a living wage. Journalist and author Barbara Ehrenreich sets off to cities around the country to try and make an honest living as an "unskilled worker" in low-wage America. She works jobs at Walmart, nursing homes, diners, maid services etc. to gain a firsthand perspective of living hand to mouth. Ehrenreich puts in an honest day of back breaking work for a month in each location, only to find that seven days a week of work will not pay for even the cheapest of rents, food and absolute necessities.
The descriptions of her coworkers broke my heart a little bit. The devastating effects of being unpaid, under-appreciated and almost invisible to the middle and upper classes were disturbing. Not to mention the lack of proper nutrition available in their circumstances. The poverty of people working that hard is positively unthinkable. Ehrenreich doesn't find hoards of slackers and drug addicts working for meager paychecks in the most thankless of jobs, but rather people banding together with their families and working to get through tomorrow.
"I grew up hearing over and over, to the point of tedium, that 'hard work' was the secret of success: 'Work hard and you'll get ahead' or 'It's hard work that got us where we are.' No one ever said that you could work hard–harder even than you ever thought possible–and still find yourself sinking ever deeper into poverty and debt."
I found this book completely illuminating. It also made me feel guilty and like a completely spoiled brat. I guess in my mind all this time I've pictured homeless and destitute people as lazy drug addicts and alcoholics or families who have some catastrophic event. I didn't picture the checker at Walmart or Wendy's as an emergency case who sleeps in her car with her kids. Now that these working poor are growing in numbers (somewhere around 1/3 of people in the US)–"well what do we think of them? Disapproval and condescension no longer apply, but what outlook makes sense?" We are living in an culture of extreme inequality, an invisible caste system that is taking over. When you can no longer keep your family off the streets with full time employment, what exactly is the answer?
The biggest problem for most people I know, other than the lack of living wage jobs, is the lack of affordable child care. How can you work for $7-10 and still pay for a babysitter? It's something to think about.
Overall this book was an eye opener for me. I appreciated the honest approach and Ehrenreich's total transparencies in her research and personality.
2 comments:
I think Brian read that book. He enjoyed it.
I hate to be all dem. here and use your blog as a platform or anything, but I am so excited about the healthcare bill and that EVERY American will have healthcare. Stories like this are too frequent lately. Just found out some scary things about the girl I VT. I'm going to put this book on my "to read"
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