The Working Poor: Invisible in America

The Working Poor: Invisible in America is a 2004 book written by Pulitzer Prize winner, David K. Shipler. From personal interviews and research, Shipler presents in this book anecdotes and life stories of individuals considered the working poor.^[1] Using their lives as examples, Shipler illustrates the struggles the working poor face while attempting to escape poverty.

Throughout the book, Shipler describes numerous economic issues preventing the working poor from escaping poverty.

According to examples from the book, the working poor, many whom have never attended college, often live in dangerous neighborhoods. It describes how the working poor purchase homes with high lead paint toxicity that are cheaply priced. Their investments in this kind of capital are often wasted. With little money to renovate their homes and get rid of the lead paint, they must sell them at prices lower or equal to the purchase price. In addition to the lack of capital or purchasing power, the working poor also lack social and human capital they need to escape poverty. In neighborhoods with atrocious living conditions, the working poor also face a higher crime rate. Due to the higher crime rate in these neighborhoods they often do not trust or care about one another. With lack of trust and care, these neighborhoods not only are economically inefficient, but the working poor do not have the adequate human network and support from their communities to escape poverty. Because many of the working poor do not have degrees or sufficient technical skills, it is difficult for them to obtain high paying jobs and lift themselves out of poverty.

In addition to the lack of capital, it seems that society does little to help them to escape poverty. Often, households that are considered to be working poor are headed by mothers. Frequently, when mothers cannot find inexpensive and proper child care services, they have to leave their jobs and go on welfare.^[2] Though caring for their children will help to bring up the next generation of workforce to our society, these mothers are unpaid for their work and penalized for doing care work. This is a phenomenon known as care penalty. Often, single mothers cannot afford the replacement cost for child care, so they have to stay home to take care of their children, and pay the opportunity cost by forgoing their opportunity to earn income for care work. As the United States has become more industrialized, the price for services such as child daycare is increasing, while the production of goods is becoming relatively inexpensive. This phenomenon is known as the Baumol effect, and many of the working poor are at the short end of this effect as they have to spend higher percentage of their incomes for services.

In the chapter Importing the Third World, Shipler explores some flaws of comparative advantages. One case is illustrated by clothing companies who hire contractors that hire illegal immigrants. The contractors pay employees below the minimum wage to work in atrocious sweatshops for hours, exceeding the legal limit.^[3] Because of these flaws, markets - often for the sake of saving money and for efficiency - hire workers who accept wages, working hours, and working conditions below the standard set by the U.S federal government. As more American companies go overseas to capture the upside of foreign trade, they provide no jobs for American working poor, which increases inequality gap between the poor and the rich and contributes to economic inefficiency.

The consumerist culture, according to the book, encourages the working poor to purchase positional goods. Television and cell phones are so widespread in America that they are considered usual home appliances. However, for a poor working-class family, these items may seem to be luxury items. Some of the working poor, goaded by commercials, spend a large portion of their little incomes to purchase these items in order to demonstrate to the society in large that they are middle-class families.

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