Introduction to
The Working Poor
By David K. Shipler
Purpose of Book
• What is Shipler’s purpose in writing The
Working Poor?
• Ultimate purpose of the book—to help us
see the problems of the working poor.
“The first step is to see the problems, and the first
problem is the failure to see the people”
(p. 11).
What are the keys questions
asked in this chapter?
• Why are the Poor poor?
• What is poverty?
Why are the Poor poor?
• The American Myth (p. 5)
– “Any individual from the humblest origins can
climb into well-being.” (p. 5)
– Corollary: Hard work can cure poverty.
– If hard work can cure poverty, then the Poor
must be Poor because they choose not to work
enough
Why are the Poor poor?
• The American Anti-Myth (p.6)
– “Society is largely responsible for the
individual’s poverty.” (p.6)
• What does society do create poverty?
Shipler rejects both myths!
• “The working individuals in this book are neither
helpless nor omnipotent, but stand on various
points along the spectrum between polar opposites
of personal and societal responsibility.” (p. 6)
• “For practically every family, then, the ingredients
of poverty are part financial and part
psychological, part personal and part societal,
part past and part present.” (p. 11)
Why would Shipler choose to open his book
with the question, Why are the Poor poor?
• Policy implications
. . . The reality I discovered does not fit
neatly into anyone’s political agenda. I
want to challenge and undermine
longstanding assumptions at both ends of
the spectrum.”
(p. x)
Policy Implication of
the American Myth
• Adherence to the American Myth
requires that the US must provide
opportunity for work: Society is not left
off the hook!!!!
Policy Implication of the
American Anti-Myth
Society must reform itself by:
• Eliminating racial discrimination
• Redistributing economic power away
from profit-hungry corporations
• Improving the schools that serve
children from low-income homes
• Winning the war on drugs
Shipler’s Policy Perspective
• Interlocking problems require
interlocking solutions
“Every problem magnifies the impact of the
others and all are so tightly interlocked that
one reversal can produce a chain reaction
with results far distant from the original
cause.” (p. 11)
Shipler believes Society must help
• Breaking away and
moving a comfortable
distance from poverty
seems to require a
perfect line-up of
favorable conditions
(pp. 4-5)
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
Set of skills
Good starting wage
Job with upward mobility
Clarity of purpose
Courageous self-esteem
Lack of substantial debt
Good health—no limiting
addictions
– Functional family
– Network of upstanding
friends
– Appropriate help from
private and/or public
agencies
What is Poverty?
• Standard reference dictionaries
disagree
– Webster’s New International Dictionary: Want
or scarcity of means of subsistence
– Webster’s Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary:
The state of one who lacks a usual or socially
acceptable amount of money or material
possessions
Absolute vs. Relative Poverty
• Absolute: inability to provide the means of
subsistence--Webster’s New International
Dictionary
• Relative: inability to provide a standard of
living shared by most members of society-Webster’s Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary
– Less than half the national median income
– less than 60% of the national average income
Source: http://gumption.org/1993/memo/landmarks/us_income.html
Illustrations
of Absolute and Relative Poverty
• http://www.visualizingeconomics.com/20
06/11/05/2005-us-income-distribution/
• Material World by photojournalist Peter
Menzel, http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/worldbalance/material.html
– Compare different standards of living across
countries
– Would any of the families be considered
absolutely poor?
Measuring Poverty in the US
• We use an absolute measure
• For official poverty thresholds see:
http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/pov
erty/threshld.html
• To learn how the thresholds were
developed, see Shipler, pp. 9-10, and
http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/poverty/o
verview.html
What does it mean to live in poverty?
• “ . . . Poverty is not a category that can
be delineated merely by the
government’s dollar limits on annual
income. In real life, it is an unmarked
area along a continuum, a broader
region of hardship that the society
usually recognizes. . .” (Shipler, p. x)
What does it mean to live in poverty?
• To be unable to pay all your bills out of
your pay check
• To be hopeless
• To be helpless
• To have no sense of direction
• To lack cultural capital--having an
appreciation for and access to the arts
and supportive relationships
For Thursday
• Bring i-clickers to class!!!!
• Review Census Bureau web sites about
measuring poverty
– http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/poverty/threshld.html
– http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/poverty/overview.html
• Read the Preface and the Introduction,
in The Working Poor!