$2.00 A Day: Living on Almost Nothing in America

by Kathryn J. Edin

Americans didn’t hate the poor as much as they hated welfare.

low-wage employment is projected to grow, not shrink.

How is it that a solid work ethic is not an adequate defense against extreme poverty?

Service sector employers often engage in practices that middle-class professionals would never accept. They adopt policies that, purposely or not, ensure regular turnover among their low-wage workers, thus cutting the costs that come with a more stable workforce, including guaranteed hours, benefits, raises, promotions, and the like. Whatever can be said about the characteristics of the people who work low-wage jobs, it is also true that the jobs themselves too often set workers up for failure.

any program so out of sync with American values was doomed to fail.