Wage-ing Welfare War

In an effort to fight an ensuing backlash, the Bush administration recanted statements concerning a plan to get welfare recipients back to work by paying them below the minimum wage. While such backtracking managed to keep the Bush team out of hot water, it certainly failed to draw support for the President's agenda, and became the source of open mockery from welfare activists, according to the Los Angeles Times.

The Bush plan calls for a variety of tougher requirements for receiving welfare as it seeks to place 70% of all recipients in jobs by 2007. Because many more welfare recipients will be required to work, some states will be forced to create more low-paying community service jobs, positions which will probably not provide what welfare activists call a "living wage."

The wrangling is sure to continue…and curious readers may wish to consult a few of the books below:

Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America
Edited by Barbara Ehrenreich
A hot-issue bestseller that's struck a nerve with readers across America, Nickel and Dimed is the story of acclaimed journalist Ehrenreich's trip to the bottom rung of the ladder. In an effort to explore the reality behind the rhetoric of welfare reform, she works in a number of different positions -- waitressing, maid service, and even as a Wal-Mart sales clerk -- and finds that her check-to-check existence is a constant struggle that often leaves her teetering on the edge of homelessness. An eye-opening look at life in low-wage America.

The War Against the Poor
by Herbert J. Gans
Claiming that America's poor function as a scapegoat for ills in American society, Columbia University professor Gans examines the socioeconomic, psychological, and political reasons behind the stigma that middle- and upper-class America often place upon the underclass. While his claims are certainly controversial, Gans' probing of the American psyche just as certainly merits discussion, and, by including a set of imaginative economic policy ideas, he provides hope for progress amidst our current bleak economic realities.

Gig: Americans Talk About Their Jobs
Edited by Marisa Bowe et. al.
In the tradition of Studs Terkel's Working, Gig offers firsthand accounts from dozens of people talking about their jobs -- what they do, why they do it, and how they feel about it. From a corporate CEO to a transvestite prostitute to a film producer to a crime scene cleaner to a Wall Street temp, Gig presents a vision of the American workforce that is sure to expand your perspective on what goes on outside of your own office, cube, counter, or street corner. Sometimes hilarious, occasionally heartbreaking, and never less than fascinating, Gig is destined to live on as a telling document of contemporary American life.

Why Americans Hate Welfare: Race, Media, and the Politics of Antipoverty Policy
by Martin Gilens
Do racial stereotypes and misinformation influence discussions of welfare reform? Gilens certainly thinks so, and he argues that many white Americans oppose welfare because they think it benefits "undeserving" blacks who would rather live off the government than work. Exploring public opinion, public policy, and the historical context behind our attitudes toward welfare, Gilens paints a complex picture of the opposition to welfare in a work of meticulous research and thought-provoking analysis.

Cold New World: Growing Up in Harder County
by William Finnegan
Here, Finnegan, a New Yorker writer, chronicles the lives of families in four communities across America. From the 15-year-old drug dealer in New Haven, Connecticut, to the residents of a sleepy Texas town with a severe crack problem, to Mexican American teenagers in Washington State turning to gang life, to jobless young white supremacists in an L.A. suburb, Finnegan gives us an intimate look into the lives of the coming-of-age underclass. While it's certainly a downer -- especially when Finnegan examines the roots of the urban malaise he finds -- Cold New World is also a chilling piece of reportage that masterfully illuminates the dark side of modern America.