David K. Shipler tackles this difficult subject with compassion and honesty. This is not one of those books that is boring to read, with endless facts and figures. Shipler engages his readers with his conversational style of writing. He introduces us to some of the working poor, tells us of their hardships and their victories.

Most people are not poor because they are stupid or lazy. Many of us, in fact, are one bad choice or one serious illness away from being part of the working poor. This book sheds light on a subject that has too long been swept under the carpet. I believe everyone in the U.S. should read this one. ( )

Good info, but a pretty boring read. ( )

Pulitizer prize author David Shipler has done a great public service with this book. He shows what it means to be part of the working poor and how people get to there. He offers revealing stories and hopeful tableaus that will truly educate anyone who reads the book. I used to think that I had some idea of what it means for people to be poor and how they got there. This book disavowed me of that notion. Shipler carefully identifies the many ways the slide van begin. This book is a must read for anyone thinking about dropping out of high school or college, one of the many avenues to working poorhood. I've read excerpts of it to my students and they have been mesmerized by it. I am hopeful that they will remember the wise admonitions it contains. ( )

Is it a myth that anyone who is willing to work hard can achieve the American Dream? Is the playing field level and does everyone start out with the same opportunities or are the ones who “make good” an anomaly?

This is a very thought-provoking book and one that might change your perceptions about what it means to be poor in America. I recommend it! ( )

First, what this book is not: this is not a book about the very poorest of the poor, or about the poor outside of the U.S., or about all of the varieties and challenges of being poor, or about the evidence on policies to help the poor. It's a very limited book, and I know I, for one, will want to read more on this topic.

What it is, though, is a long series of true stories of people in the U.S. who have been working for a living and yet cannot make it into the middle class. These stories hint at a number of the components of the problem: transportation, child care, health, expensive financial instruments, opportunities for advancement in low-wage jobs, psychological trauma, immigration requirements. They hint at some of the things that help these people (knowledge of the systems, support structures such as family) as well as the things that impede them (addiction, credit, plain old "bad judgment").

Most importantly, though, these stories emphasize the intertwined elements of poverty in the United States, the entire system that cannot be unraveled with one snip. This is the level at which we must think if we want the United States to be a land of opportunity. Although the stories do not cover all of the relevant ground, I believe they make this point well, and provide food for thought along these lines.

Things that were not discussed enough, I believe, were the importance of race, gender, and disability; the restrictions placed on people who have committed crimes in the past; the disincentives for people to do traditionally "frugal" things such as sharing housing under Section 8 or cooking from scratch with the lack of time and facilities; matters of architecture and urban planning such as access to affordable groceries in inner cities; the poor on the family farm; the economics of medical care, especially such issues as preventive care and reproductive health. I know there are many others I noticed along the way as well.

All in all, recommended, easy to read, and hopefully only the first step on learning about these issues. ( )