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Summary Of The Working Poor Invisible In America

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David K. Shipler’s The Working Poor: Invisible in America describes the low-income Americans face. He notes that they are both impacted by the social, political and economic environment in which they live and a cause of their own poverty. Shipler makes his point through conversations with the working poor, their employers and those who are trying to help them break the cycle of poverty. He successfully argues that the solution to the problems faced by this group is that everyone needs to work together, government, private organizations and the working poor themselves, to change what is wrong with the system. But while his point is valid, the book, which claims to be objective in terms of its politics is not, and Shipler’s “us” versus “them” …show more content…

For example, he tells the story of the moan who managed to kick and scream his way off welfare to own a factory where he trains and helps others to do the same (CH 7). Shipler also tells the tale of a school dedicated to improving the parental involvement in children’s education by creating opportunities for parents to work with children, and giving parents information related to parenting and health insurance (CH 11). He writes that working poor will be able to improve with support and dedication and that, government and private programs, if they had the will and the resources, could “become portals through which the distressed could pass into a web of assistance” (CH 11). If people were willing to work together to create needed educational, social and employment programs and if the working poor felt able to access these resources and dedicated enough to buck the system, perhaps they could become less invisible and change could …show more content…

In the preface of the book he states that the problems faced by the working poor go beyond political boundaries. He repeats this idea in chapter 11 when he notes that it will take both political parties to reform their own ideas enough to create necessary programs. However, when he is describing how the plight of the working poor got so bad, he places emphasis on Republican policies. He says that welfare programs have been cut “thanks in large measure to rulings by conservative judges installed by Republican presidents and Senates” (CH 11). While he repeatedly states that both parties need to change their ideals to help, most of the problems caused by a decrease in help for the poor can be laid at the feet of the Republicans. To the reader this makes the book more of a political statement than Shipler says it

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