Response # 11

I am currently reading a book titles “The Working Poor” written by David Shipler. In Shiplers book he indentifies with twelve different poor people. Some of them are women, male, Caucasian, black, and other races. He follows them through a period on their current life to determine why they are poor. Much to his surprise, or to the public’s surprise, all of his subjects are working. They work very hard and long hours. What he finds is that due to other outside circumstances, which at times can be out of the persons control, have kept them or put them into the poverty world. One of his many subjects is a poor workingwomen who is a mother.

He interviews these women and finds that many of them grew-up in the inner-city where there is high crime, low quality education, and little resources to a high paying job. Therefore, these women are working for almost pennies an hour. One woman by the name of Caroline explains her current job to her previous jobs. As she is a bit older now in life she had three goals to accomplish. One, to achieve a college education, she completed an associates degree from a local community college, moved out of the shelter and into a place of her own, and last, to have a “good paying job.” Caroline uses the phrase “eludes her.” She states that back in the 1970’s she was working in a factory making $6.00 an hour. Now in 2000, she was making $6.80 an hour as a cashier at Wal-Mart. This shows in real life situations that working doesn’t always work for the poor. Many times it sets them further back. When they get a job the lose government subsides and in return, the victims fall behind on their bills, and are charged outrageous interest rates. Many times women cannot have bank accounts because their credit has been shot due to unpaid bills. With that, it cost money to be poor. They have to pay fees at local cash checking places to receive their money. If they have to buy a car to get to and from work, they are charged upwards of 18 to 25% interest rates on a car that is no more reliable than some public transportation systems.