The Endless Struggle in The Working Poor by David Shipler Essay

My little sister Anita was born at the time and having a baby sibling around made me feel like a big kid or a parent. I loved holding her and feeding her with a bottle my mom taught me to do while she worked at a night shift (maturation). My fourth grade year is probably the time I went through the most out of my elementary school years. I found out things were getting hectic between my parents. I would see them fight almost every day about money, cheating, and where did they go in their free time. One night when my mom came home from grocery shopping they were verbally fighting and yelling at each other. I heard it from the living room and I went into the kitchen to see them. All of a sudden, I just saw my dad pushed her into the ground and started beating her. She eventually escaped from his grip and ran into my sister’s room. She called the police and they came and arrested him for assault. I couldn’t do much because I just stood there witnessing in shock. They divorced in October while it was the beginning of my fifth grade year. I started to go through depression since the whole thing happened. I grew bitter, unmotivated for school, and even crueler towards my family and animals. I had terrible grades in my report card and I tend to get embarrassed with my teacher yelling at me. I cried over the smallest things that would happen in class. People started giving me sympathy but then got tired of it because it happened often. Around the winter time my mom started to

In David K. Shipler’s book, The Working Poor Invisible in America the reader is provided a peek into the personal stories of the inner lives of eight families struggling inside the vicious cycle of poverty. Shipler’s method of interviews, narratives of personal stories and observation represents an innovative study investigating the working poor in an attempt to understand “how people in real communities devise collective responses to their problems (Segal, 2010).”

Regardless if we are aware of it or not, not many Americans live the supposed American Dream of having a nice car, big house, well paying job, and have a secure family. In the renowned novel The Working Poor: Invisible in America by David K. Shipler he captures those Americans who live invisible in America that work so hard to suffer from the psychological effects of poverty. Not only does Shipler do that but he also indirectly talks about the “American Myth” and the “American Anti Myth through the lives on these individuals.”

The novel, “The Working Poor” by David K. Shipler gives us an inside look into the lives of the lower class and he explores exactly what it means to do hard, exhausting but honest work in America. The working poor are working people whose incomes fall below the poverty line. While poverty is often associated with joblessness, a significant proportion of the poor are actually employed. Shipler teaches us that just because you have finally become employed does not mean that most or all of your worries are over, often times they are increased. Largely because they are earning such low wages, the working poor face numerous obstacles that make it difficult for many of them to find and keep a job, save up money, and maintain a sense of self-worth. Shipler did an amazing job bringing light to the “forgotten America”.

The objective of this essay is to illuminate my overall reaction to the reading of “The Working Poor” conveying what I do not like while highlighting a sociological perspective, in addition to explaining if the reading is applicable to my own life experience. Taking notice, the subject at hand was very sobering alluding even if we ourselves have not been partakers of living in the obscurity of prosperity between poverty and wellbeing, certainly we have encountered someone that has become a victim to it. With this in mind, my reaction is there are countless victims of poverty; surely one does not have to go very far to find them as we understand them to be the working class. There are those that may express the thought of

In The United States, two in five children receive food stamps reported the Census Bureau. Poverty affects people uniquely. Mothers naturally do everything in their control to shelter their young from hardships in life. Two moms, from the book The Working Poor written by David K Shipler chose diverse approaches to deal with the economic struggles that burdened their family. The women are similar; they are poor in life, yet unique in how they dealt with being indigent. Kara worked, accepted welfare, but considered acts of charity as pity. Ann chose part-time jobs to maintain closeness to her children, refused state assistance; however, accepted kindness from friends. Though the paths were dissimilar, each sustained both families with nurturing;

Generally-speaking, the primary reason behind why Ehrenreich asserts that low-wage workers are “the major philanthropists of our society” is that they essentially neglect their own children and personal lives alike, for the sake of satisfying wealthier individuals. From housekeeping to waitressing, “wage slaves” often carry out arduous, back-breaking work for extensive periods of time: an indisputable sign of philanthropy. Although a great deal of work is indeed accomplished at the end, to the benefit of owners, the workers’ families themselves receive little to no compensation. Evidence from the text that further bolsters this claim is shown when the author states,“They [the “working poor”] neglect their own children so that the children

The following months a winter, cold and gloomy, surrounded the house. My grandmother came to stay with us since my father had fallen into depression and needed help taking care of my sister and I. When my grandmother went grocery shopping my sister would struggle with homework without my grandmother’s help. One day when my grandmother left to go grocery shopping my sister approached me, which was unusual of her since its very rare for her to come to me. Her dark brown hair and big eyes reminded me of my self when I was younger. “I’m hungry” she complained, a question she’s never asked me. My father sleeping and my grandmother away, I was the only one left to take care of her and that terrified me. I had never cared for or known how to care for someone else. All I knew was how to evaluate whether or not someone was caring for another correctly.

Poor people is a collection of interviews with first-hand sources of those in poverty mixed with the authors, William T. Vollmann's, inner struggle and thought-process of what poverty is. Vollmann's position on poverty is stated early on in the book "For me, poverty is not mere deprivation; for people may possess fewer things than I and be Richer; Poverty is wretchedness."(Vollmann 36). Poverty to Vollman is wretchedness meaning " a condition of extreme affliction or distress, especially as outwardly apparent" (Wretched). He continues with, "It must then be an economic state. It, therefore, remains somewhat immeasurable ... I can best conceive of poverty as a series of perceptual categories." (Vollmann 36). These perceptual categories are the five categories in the book, self-definitions, phenomena, choices, hope, and placeholders.

In the article Rich and Poor, Peter Singer sees extreme poverty as “not having enough income to meet the most basic human needs for adequate food, water, shelter, clothing, sanitation, health care or education” (pg. 234). Singer does not fail to compare those in extreme poverty to people who are living in absolute affluence. He suggests that it is the responsibility of those living in affluence to help those who are in need of obtaining even the basic human needs. He also argues that the affluent not helping is the moral equivalency of murder. Singer realizes that even though the rich can give to the poor these resources that they need, the rich do not feel enough of a moral mandate to do so. I disagree a bit with Singer because he seems to suggest that everyone who has the basic necessities is morally obligated to give but, I believe that this idea of a moral mandate to give should only apply to the extremely wealthy. Like Singer’s first premises says “If we can prevent something bad without sacrificing anything of comparable significance, we ought to do it.” (243) If the absolute affluent have large amounts of money, they can help to at least make people live comfortably without losing anything of great significance. The increasing poverty rates, not just in America but, globally cannot be solved if the extremely wealthy continue to do wasteful spending and choose to not put their money more towards programs and charities that better the lives of the people in their

Peter Singer is often regarded as one of the most productive and influential philosophers of modern times. He is well-known for his discussions of the acute social, economic, and political issues, including poverty and famines. In his “Famine, Affluence, and Morality”, Singer (1972) discusses the problem of poverty and hunger, as well as the way this problem is treated in the developed world. Singer believes that charity is inseparable from morality, and no distinction can be drawn between charity and duty. The philosopher offers possible objections to his proposition and relevant arguments to justify his viewpoint. The modern world does not support Singer’s view, treating charity as a voluntary activity, an act of generosity that needs

The Working Poor: Invisible in America is a story that takes personal stories and accounts of people lives to describe the injustices that people face every day. Poverty is damaging to both the economy and the people who face it. Many times social policies are created to assist the people who are working but still struggle to get basic needs like food, utilities, gas, and medical. Poverty is a perpetuating cycle that is intended to keep the poor oppressed and discriminated against. Respectfully, this critique will address the social problems that are identified in the book, the major social welfare policy issues, the social values and beliefs that are critical and the implications for future social welfare policy and social work practice.

After years of being tossed around, being introduced to people I didn’t know, staying the night in houses I’d never been in, and constantly watching my dad getting into intense arguments with other people, I grew to hate staying with my dad. After he started dating my stepmother, I was around two other kids of hers to play with and a shared apartment to visit. Most of the family cats were taken away which also made me cry. I’m starting to realize why I can’t remember most of my childhood. I repress everything I’m embarrassed or ashamed of until I forget about it. Well, that got sad. Back to some happier memories! Most of these more upsetting memories occurred when I lived with my grandmother. When I was about seven, I moved to the town part of Wauseon, the house I live in now. Being in an apartment was very new to me after living in the country for most of my life. The neighbors upstairs were always changing. There would be a month of complete silence until we managed to catch them outside while taking out the trash. For a couple of my younger years, I suspected that the second apartment was haunted when I saw a silhouette in the window, when I was sure the old neighbors had moved out. After taking time to

My brother and I left Crescent, Georgia and was now staying in a two bedroom house in Decatur, Georgia with my dad, stepmother, baby sister, grandmother, and grandfather. Yep. That’s right. Seven people lived in a two bedroom house. My grandparents had one bedroom, my dad, stepmother, and sister the second bedroom, and my brother and I slept in the living room. Because the living room was not a huge space, my brother and I were only allowed to keep a small amount of our clothes in a blue plastic tub that was purchased at the dollar store while the rest went into a storage garage my father had to pay for monthly. Several of my pretty new flower or halter top dresses, brown and black leather jackets, teddy bears, diary, and pictures were thrown into garage bags and shipped away. I had become slightly depressed. I went from having my own room, dresser, clothes, and privacy to only a limited amount of my belongings, sharing a room with my brother and being woken up every night by his farts that smelled like rotten eggs. All I could do is cry and begin to despise the fact I decided to move away from my mother. As I was packing my final items to be sent to the storage, my grandmother came in. “Girl why are you crying?” “Go in the bathroom and clean your face and come back so that we can all discuss some things. Without hesitation, I quickly dashed into the bathroom to clean my eyes. When entering the room, I noticed that everyone was in the living room waiting on me with faces so

As a child, life seemed like a breeze even with what happened around me. I can normally remember having a positive attitude most of the time and loved to work alone or spend time by myself. I didn’t have my father around for most of my life, but he was around during the early years. The family that I’ve come from has always been dysfunctional. From what I know my family was similar to my dad’s family, because of the drug abuse and crime that has normally plagued his society and relationships.One thing that always stood out was the older I got the more “secrets” were solved and most of it fit together like a puzzle piece.