The State of Working America

This book is exactly what I wanted. I'm a part-time journalist writing for a small town newspaper and I like numbers. Nothing is better than a percentage or a statistic to support your story. This book has them all and an explanation to support their accuracy or inaccuracy. It is a great tool. It is a must for anyone who wants to know "The State of Working America" - which I do. Books written by Richard Noble - The Hobo Philosopher: "Hobo-ing America: A Workingman's Tour of the U.S.A.." "A Summer with Charlie" "A Little Something: Poetry and Prose" "Honor Thy Father and Thy Mother" "The Eastpointer" Selections from award winning column.

If you can wade your way through the statistics, this book is enlightening and edifying, often sad. The commentary and interpretation help clarify the wealth of information. It graphically illustrates that nothing has changed after all these years of hope and promises for change: the rich keep getting richer, the poor keep getting poorer, poverty is endemic to our tired, unimaginative economic system, etc., etc., etc. This book caused me to re-read Kevin Phillips' book "The Politics of Rich and Poor," published in 1990. It provides statistical and anecdotal evidence of the negative effects of Reagan-omics on our social system, much as Bush-enomics has. I even went farther back and re-read Michael Harrington's "The Other America," the seminal, monumental book of its time in 1962 about poverty in America. These books along with so many others make you ask, as we've asked so many times, "When will it ever change?" I guess making people aware of the problem, although it's readily apparent in everyday life, is the place to start. These books, representing 45 years of rhetoric, make you agonizingly aware that things have gone nowhere but down. So, read all of them.