My favorite quote: "Workers at the edge of poverty are essential to America’s prosperity, but their well-being is not treated as an integral part of the whole. Instead, the forgotten wage a daily struggle to keep themselves from falling over the cliff. It is time to be ashamed."

I thought the perspective Shipler had was fairly balanced between blaming/pointing at circumstances that are not necessarily the working poor's fault (i.e. attending a poorly funded public school with few resources to address a learning disability) and circumstances that the working poor have more control over (i.e. not completing education or job training, turning to drugs and alcohol to self medicate). There are no easy answers, and sometimes one solution only exacerbates others. Business and government can be part of the problem and can also be part of the solution. What Shipler does best in this book is bring a face to the working poor, as many of us, especially in this recession, could easily end up in that visible-invisible part of society.