The Moral Underground: How Ordinary Americans Subvert an Unfair Economy

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The Moral Underground: How Ordinary Americans Subvert an Unfair Economy

3.39 of 5 stars 3.39 · rating details · 74 ratings · 17 reviews

Based on author Lisa Dodson’s eight years of research and conversations with hundreds of Americans about the need to create ethical alternatives to rules that ignore the humanity of working parents and put their children at risk, The Moral Underground features stories of middle class managers and professionals who refuse to be complicit in an economy that puts a decent lif

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Hardcover, 227 pages

Published December 8th 2009 by New Press, The (first published 2009)

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Oct 10, 2011 David Robins rated it 2 of 5 stars

While this book does have some things to contribute, it has some terribly flawed premises. For a book that professes a "moral underground", it encourages or supports some very immoral things. It does provide a useful look at the problems of low-income individuals, although for the most part it focuses on single mothers. I think this was not by design, but necessary to find suitably sad examples; the story of a teenager working a "low-income" job is one of industry and seen as a stepping-stone to...more

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Feb 25, 2012 Aspen Junge rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: politics-and-policy

Dodson describes an acceptable, even fashionable, bigotry in our culture; that of blaming poor working people for their own troubles. With wages too low to support a family, working parents must scrape together child care arrangements, medical help, and go without basic necessities that our culture assumes that "good" parents will always supply their children. It is not always possible to be a "good" parent when poor. If your work schedule is irregular or inflexible, child emergencies must be ne...more

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Jun 27, 2010 Robert Hironimus-Wendt rated it 4 of 5 stars

The business ethics literature today focuses in part on whether or not businesses have a "social" responsibility. Too often, this literature concludes vehemently that the primary (and sometimes only) responsibility corporations have is toward their investors. Lost in too much of this literature is any sense of humanity or compassion, any sense of the social relations that organizations play in communities. If customers and employees benefit, that's nice. But in much of this literature, community...more The business ethics literature today focuses in part on whether or not businesses have a "social" responsibility. Too often, this literature concludes vehemently that the primary (and sometimes only) responsibility corporations have is toward their investors. Lost in too much of this literature is any sense of humanity or compassion, any sense of the social relations that organizations play in communities. If customers and employees benefit, that's nice. But in much of this literature, community chest investments are often viewed as bad investments, because money spent in host communities is money not reinvested in the company, or money denied to the investors who (theoretically) sustain businesses. At its extreme, this literature asserts that customers and employees are secondary concerns in their relations to the profit motive, and are tools to be used or discarded in order to enrich the corporation.

In this context, "The Moral Underground" is a wonderful, and an essential counterbalance to these profit-motivated justifications for participating in the oppression of the weak, the poor and the children. Whether or not corporate leaders and business owners "believe" they have a social relationship (and responsibility) in their host communities, the fact is they do. Their actions and their inactions in communities either cause harm, or cause good. To deny this reality doesn't make the relationship go away.

Lisa Dodson spends several years talking with store managers and low wage employees, with single mothers and social service workers, with nurses, doctors and patients. And what makes this book worth reading is the finding that lots of these folks get it - they understand this mutual, social obligation that binds each to the other. It is simply refreshing to read stories of nurses and doctors 'taking care of the paperwork' in order to take care of sick children and their mothers, rather than more properly, passing them along. It does the soul well to hear of managers letting single mothers go to school to get their sick child, and not docking them a half-day’s pay or firing them according to P & P. When we read of the big box store managers allowing their poorly paid employees to simply take care of overstock clothes or food, in order to feed and clothe their children, one surely finds that glimmer of hope we all have locked away somewhere being rekindled.

In many of these narratives, the question is actually not whether the business itself has a social responsibility. Indeed, many of the people in these narratives recognize that 'the company' or 'the corporation' is irrelevant, because these things are just paper relationships. In the real worlds where they work and live, patients and workers matter more because they are humans, just like themselves. Many of the managers and doctors and others in positions to make a difference in the lives of those around them, repeatedly frame their decisions around familial relations. Mary Jane, a retail manager, found ways to share the company's wealth because "as a parent, I just couldn't act like this was okay. I felt like I had to do something." Gilbert, “a black man raised by a single mother,” chose to do good by bending the rules. He literally recognized the difficult struggles too many of the parents who worked for him faced on a daily basis. “Gilbert summed up his comments by referring to doing what you believe is right, because in the end, that's what you live with.”

As an academic, it would be easy to say something like "the first part of this book should be required reading for all business school undergraduates" or that "medical school students absolutely need to read the third part of this book." But the truth is, this book is bigger than that. For universities that find it currently marketable to publicly state that "social responsibility" is a core value of their institution, this book should be seriously considered as a First Year Reading, or as a University Capstone Reading. All college students need to intentionally examine the real relationships between absolute poverty and our shared social responsibility for serving our contemporary "widows and orphans." In the end, all college students will ultimately live in the real world beyond campus, where the tenuous line between "barely getting by," and "surviving day-to-day" plays out continuously for at least 30 million of their too often invisible fellow Americans. The sooner college students begin critically analyzing and assessing this institutionalized process that defines work in America for at least a quarter of all workers, the sooner they too may learn that it sometimes makes sense to "bend unjust rules" and do something to help those who are in reality, helpless.

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Jan 31, 2013 Angel rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: business-and-economics, current-affairs, education, health-and-medicine, politics-and-political-science, social-sciences

Let's cut to the chase. The reason I did not rate this book higher is that it can get repetitive at times. The book also is a bit heavy on anecdotes, and to be honest, it goes more into effects and impact of poverty, which are important topics, than into the moral underground concept, which is the real reason I picked up the book. Now, don't let that fool you. This book presents some very solid research the author did over eight years, and it does include plenty of notes and documentation for th...more Let's cut to the chase. The reason I did not rate this book higher is that it can get repetitive at times. The book also is a bit heavy on anecdotes, and to be honest, it goes more into effects and impact of poverty, which are important topics, than into the moral underground concept, which is the real reason I picked up the book. Now, don't let that fool you. This book presents some very solid research the author did over eight years, and it does include plenty of notes and documentation for those who want to go further. Do understand that names have been changed to protect people who often take great risks to help out their fellow human beings who happen to be poor and need a hand in a society that pretty much discards them. Anyhow, the book spends two-thirds of the content on the exposition of the poverty issue, and only towards the end does it get to the point promised in the title. After a while, you can skim some of it.

Now, leaving the negative I saw as a reader aside, this is a book that more people need to be reading. What I am afraid of is that the usual "poor blaming" and "victim blaming" crowds (you know them, the asshats who always say "if those poor people only did X and Y" and "why the hell do they keep breeding?") will probably glance at it, then toss it aside, minds already closed and made up. But they need to read this. Policy makers, educators, social workers, teachers, parents, all need to be reading this. Because when we think of poverty, we usually think of those who suffer it. The real issue, in addition to that, is the impact that poverty has on the rest of society. The poor do work, and they work hard. In their underpaid, often exploitative jobs they come across middle class people, their employers and managers, and this creates tension and strife. Some of these managers lack any sense of empathy or compassion in spite of the fact they are the ones who often enable an unjust system that does not even pay a living wage. But Dodson points out that there are some small points of hope: managers, supervisors, superiors, so on who see injustice and refuse to simply watch it happen. They show compassion and empathy, and they disobey the rules as need be because immoral conditions should not be tolerated. So, a manager might overlook a worker being late because of a mother having to take a kid to the doctor, or maybe said manager alters the time clock so she gets her full pay if the mother had to leave early for said doctor appointment. What conservative hypocrites fail to appreciate, and it is very well laid out here, is that minimum wage jobs not do not provide a living wage: period. For all their whining about "welfare moms" and other stereotypes of unemployed people, there are are tons of working poor, who have, you know, real jobs. And in their minds, work is what is supposed to lift them out of poverty and give them progress. Well, when you pay shitty wages that force someone to work two or even three jobs to make ends meet, other corners have to be cut. So, mom has to leave her child alone at home for a few hours because she cannot afford day care on the shit salary your slave job pays. Is that really neglect? It's either the kid or the job. Most middle class people would probably say the kid first, but they have the resources to buy child care as needed. Poor people often lack that option, and when they do, that situation does have ripples throughout the rest of society, something that most whiny right winger conservatives and libertarians fail to see.

So, a small, mostly invisible moral underground emerges where some folks with compassion do whatever they can to help out their poor workers and friends. Some of these managers do have compassion and hearts, and they see the plight of their workers. A doctor writes a prescription for an asthmatic patient, but puts it in the name of the aunt, for instance, because said aunt has health insurance, so the medication will be covered. Fraud? To the letter of the law moralists, maybe. But it's either that, or let a child go without life saving medicine. If I was that physician, I know my choice. Do you? And this kind of thing does happen all over the place. However, as Dodson points out, it is not visible. It is an underground. She had to do a lot of work and give a lot of reassurances to get some of the information. You see, people in the Moral Underground have certain mechanisms and knowledge in place, information they are not going to share with just anyone, if at all. In many cases, the best Dodson could do was just provide outlines of what some folks do, or mention they did something without giving any specifics so as not to disrupt a pipeline.

At the end of the book, Dodson does provide a plan, outlining what needs to change and happen for things to get better in order to have a truly fair economy for ordinary people. Overall, this is probably one of the best books I have read, and I do wish more people will read it. (less)

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Feb 11, 2012 Jacqui rated it 3 of 5 stars

In the course of researching the lives of the working poor in America, the author uncovered a thread of civil disobedience. Healthcare practitioners, providers of state services, managers and religious leaders all finding ways to bend or break rules that would otherwise harm the working poor.

I've often wondered how single parents manage getting their children to and from school and what they do for child care on the days off seemingly randomly sprinkled through the school year. Summer vacation...more

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Apr 27, 2010 Barbara Mader rated it 3 of 5 stars

Along the lines of Ehrenreich's _Nickle and Dimed: On (Not) Getting by in America_, but not quite as engaging. You meet a few assholes in the book (freely criticizing ala "these people are just irresponsible/don't have any character" etc,--despite not really knowing anything about 'them' and their individual situations. I wonder if the recession's impact on much of the middle class would give these same people pause. I wonder if some of the assholes quoted in the book lost their jobs or homes.

Yo...more

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Jun 28, 2010 Books Ring Mah Bell rated it 4 of 5 stars

The premise of the book is that decent people, wanting to work, are not given a fair wage and efforts they make to get ahead are often futile. Sometimes, if they are "lucky", a good boss will pad a paycheck, or not write them up if they miss a day, say, to care for a sick child, which may cause them to lose a job. By interviewing employers and employees around the country, the author gives us the low down on low wages, and how they affect everyone.

Let us take a look at the vicious cycle of the l...more The premise of the book is that decent people, wanting to work, are not given a fair wage and efforts they make to get ahead are often futile. Sometimes, if they are "lucky", a good boss will pad a paycheck, or not write them up if they miss a day, say, to care for a sick child, which may cause them to lose a job. By interviewing employers and employees around the country, the author gives us the low down on low wages, and how they affect everyone.

Let us take a look at the vicious cycle of the low wage for the employee. Employees struggle to make ends meet, sometimes they have to work a few jobs and then they are fatigued, thus more prone to injury or becoming unreliable at a job. They may lose that job, have to move, and may miss chances for promotion.

Now, for the kids of the low wage worker: they suffer also. A 10 year old may have to watch younger siblings while mom goes to her night job, the kids don't get proper supervision, rest, or nutrition, which jacks up their performance at school, which causes a drain on the school staff (and/or budget), and the kids can't get ahead in school, producing less educated children.

(like it or not, this is OUR problem, because the kids are the future.)

Some employers are empathetic to the plight of these low wage workers. They try to pad paychecks, or refuse to reprimand employees that come in late or have to leave early due to the troubles low wages cause the employees. Some employers in the retail world tweak orders so extra food or clothing can be given to those struggling to get by. In schools, administrators and teachers may fudge paperwork so kids can stay in the same district and have some sense of stability in their lives.

Are they dishonest? Stealing? Or are they doing what is morally right to care for these people?

Other employers are not so... understanding. These low wage people should NOT have children if they cannot support them. These low wage people are expected to be at work, rain or shine, and a sick child or lack of transportation is no reason to not be at work at the scheduled time.

Are they jerks? Or are they doing their job and trying to do what is right for the bottom line of the company?

Great book club book, sure to generate some conversation, and maybe, just maybe, some solutions to the problems.

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Oct 01, 2010 Vernon Horn marked it as to-read

Shelves: bob-edwards-interviewees

Lisa Dodson writes about the secret world of economic disobedience in her book The Moral Underground: How Ordinary Americans Subvert an Unfair Economy. I heard her interviewed on Bob Edwards interview show. She documents the way working people commit minor (and major) acts of kindness towards their fellow workers, and particularly those they supervise.

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May 02, 2011 Hannah rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: nonfiction

I appreciated the premise and the content. It really made me think. I'm just wish the style was more personable and less institutional.

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Dec 18, 2011 Edward Sullivan rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: adult-nonfiction

An interesting and insightful sociological study of America's working poor though not always the most engaging writing.

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Jan 17, 2012 Wes Metz rated it 4 of 5 stars

The people in this book give me hope that someday we may actually change our society so as not to exclude so many people from being able to live a decent life, regardless of the supposed 'value' of the labor they contribute to the economy. This is the story of the poor and the working poor, and the impossibility of their achieving the American dream; it's also the story of those managers, employers, teachers, and others who bend or break the rules to help the poor get by in a system that is stac...more

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Aug 14, 2012 Derek rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: politcial, nonfiction

Great book! everyone in service sector management should read this book!

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Mar 07, 2011 Libby rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: global-values

I hope to buy and mail copies of this book to three dear friends.

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Mar 19, 2012 carl rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: economics, politics

business is not like theoretical mathematics, it is a purely human endeavor driven by relationships between people. thus, it can, and it must, come under ethical scrutiny.

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Jun 19, 2010 heather rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: teachingwriting

American University's Writer as Witness for 2010. 3.5 stars if I could -- I'm kind of excited to teach this.

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Jan 09, 2011 Berkeley rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: couldn-t-finish

Interesting thesis and relevant topic, but poorly developed and based on a lot of ancecdotal evidence. I really wanted to like and finish this book, but I just couldn't. I really appreciate and admire the ideas and practices this author is championing (I imagine she's very inspiring in person; I'd love to hear her speak), but I had a hard time following the direction of her narrative.

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Sep 01, 2010 Emily rated it 1 of 5 stars

I had to read this book as an incoming freshman of my university. I appreciate the attention it gives to the "economic fault line" in America, and its arbitrary nature. But the problem called to the reader's attention is constantly restated over and over and over...

There's also no solution presented to the problem.

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