Sumi's review
The Working Poor: Invisible in America
by David K. Shipler
Sumi's review
The Working Poor: Invisible in America by David K. Shipler
Sumi's review
rating:
bookshelves:
sociology
Usually books like this are terribly skewed to making you think that the poor are that way because they are terribly lazy and it's their own fault or that the poor are that way because the rich and powerful prey upon them and keep them ground into the dirt.
I was expecting this book to fall into the second category and was always surprised when he did things like profiled the young couple who spent part of their IRS refund check to get tattoos. Their excuse of lost childhood so they're still acting like kids didn't raise one iota of sympathy from me. The woman who refused a request that she read to her daughter regularly because she felt it was the teacher's job, yes, that one made me roll my eyes, too. Yet there were equal numbers of stories of people struggling and doing their best.
The book covered all the facets and was summed up neatly in the first two paragraphs of the last chapter where it calls poverty a "constellation of difficulties". By the time you get ther...more
I was expecting this book to fall into the second category and was always surprised when he did things like profiled the young couple who spent part of their IRS refund check to get tattoos. Their excuse of lost childhood so they're still acting like kids didn't raise one iota of sympathy from me. The woman who refused a request that she read to her daughter regularly because she felt it was the teacher's job, yes, that one made me roll my eyes, too. Yet there were equal numbers of stories of people struggling and doing their best.
The book covered all the facets and was summed up neatly in the first two paragraphs of the last chapter where it calls poverty a "constellation of difficulties". By the time you get ther...more
