Millions of Americans survive (生产) in low-paying jobs．The Working Poor (319 pages), by David Shipler, a Pulitzer-winning former reporter, shows just how barely they get by.
In his tour around the world of low-paying jobs, Shipler describes a kind of domino model of a downward cycle.' Poor housing can worsen a child's illness, which leads to a call for a doctor, which results in a medical bill that cannot by paid, which ruins a credit record, which raises the interest rate on an auto loan (贷款), which results in the buying of a used car, which causes a mother to be late for work, which limits her pay raise and earning ability, which keeps her to poor housing, which worsens the illness, and so on.'
What Shipler aims to do in the book is to produce a picture of all of those dominoes at once, the problems that keep the working poor on the edge of household disaster (灾难)．As the conditions for the lowest-paid workers keep worsening, he writes,' the low-paid employees have been testing the American belief in hard work.'
To those who don't quite make it from paycheck to paycheck, convenience stores in poor neighborhoods lend money at interest rates of about of 20% for a two-week loan．If that can't be repaid, it's gladly rolled over—for another 20%．In the space of a few months, he or she owes twice as much in interest as he borrowed.
Shipler doesn't place all the blame on society．The people he meets often lack the soft skills that employers require, like showing up on time, following directions, even knowing how to comb their hair．To be sure, they need better schools and medical care, but they also need to know better than to use their hard-earned checks to get drunk and disorderly, or go in for ill-advised and foolish spending.
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