{"id":4365,"date":"2016-04-22T10:24:28","date_gmt":"2016-04-22T16:24:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/?p=4365"},"modified":"2016-04-22T10:24:28","modified_gmt":"2016-04-22T16:24:28","slug":"from-the-library-2-00-a-day-living-on-almost-nothing-in-america-by-kathryn-j-edin-and-h-luke-shaefer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2016\/04\/from-the-library-2-00-a-day-living-on-almost-nothing-in-america-by-kathryn-j-edin-and-h-luke-shaefer.html","title":{"rendered":"From the library: $2.00 a Day: Living on Almost Nothing in America, by Kathryn J. Edin and H. Luke Shaefer"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"By<\/a><\/p>\n

This book is not a polemic. \u00a0It largely busies itself with simply explaining the lives of those in deep, deep poverty, both in general and by means of a small number of case studies, with some context to begin with and prescriptions at the end. \u00a0The book doesn\u2019t assign villians, or launch into partisan rants, and it doesn\u2019t portray the people it follows as either paragons of virtue or deserving of their fate. \u00a0And the name of the first co-author seemed familiar, and, turns out, she co-authored another book I read a while back, Promises I Can Keep, Why Poor Women Put Motherhood Before Marriage<\/a>, which I summarized in an early blog post.<\/p>\n

Is the book perfect? \u00a0No, of course not. \u00a0Through the negative reviews on Amazon, among other comments, point out that the authors take the stories their subjects relate as entirely truthful, when it\u2019s just as likely that the woman with no teeth came to that fate not by lacking dental care but by drug abuse (and drugs are wholly absent from the case studies), and the women fired for $10 missing in the cash register might will have been stealing, rather than being terminated out of the blue. \u00a0But I\u2019m getting ahead of myself. \u00a0Let\u2019s start with description before getting into opinions.<\/p>\n

The fundamental data point of the book is this: \u00a0based on analysis of the Census Bureau\u2019s Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP), an estimated 1.5 million households with 3 million children had cash income of no more than $2 per person, per day, in any given month. \u00a0Maybe this figure is inaccurate, and overstated due to individuals working under the table and not reporting the income to the survey-taker, but, regardless, what is noteworthy, and cause for concern, is that this figure \u201cmore than doubled\u201d (though this isn\u2019t quantified) since welfare reform was implemented in 1996.<\/p>\n

To some degree, this shouldn\u2019t be a surprise, what with TANF\u2019s limits on lifetime benefits. \u00a0And Edin & Schaeffer don\u2019t simply rage against the reform: \u00a0they acknowledge that it directed significant benefits to the working poor, especially those with children, via the Earned Income Tax Credit, and that has improved the wellbeing of a great many families, and, indeed, there was a major shift off the welfare rolls and a significant reduction in child poverty on an overall basis (p. 30). \u00a0What\u2019s more, welfare reform has produced a cultural shift among the poor:<\/p>\n

[W]elfare reform coincided with a fundamental shift in the way low-income single mothers thought about parenting. \u00a0In the years prior to welfare reform, in-depth conversations with hundreds of single mothers on welfare illuminated their belief that taking a full-time job would greatly detract from their ability to be a good parent, especially if they had young children. \u00a0Then came the roaring 1990s, when an unprecedented number of these single mothers found themselves going to work, \u201cpushed\u201d by the changes in the welfare rules and \u201cpulled\u201d by the EITC expansions, minimum-wage increase, and unprecendented strength of the economy.<\/p>\n

Years after welfare reform, when researches engaged in a further series of in-depth conversations with former welfare recipients, the typical single mom talked about work in a very different way from those interviewed just a few years before. \u00a0Now she was telling researchers that to be a good parent, she had to model the value of education by getting a job (p. 32).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This is clearly striking. \u00a0Yet, the authors report, for those who can\u2019t get a job, times are tougher than ever. \u00a0Even for TANF, the conventional wisdom among the poor has become \u201cdon\u2019t bother applying; the lines are too long and you\u2019ll just get rejected in the end\u201d \u2014 and they further quote poor women who are convinced it doesn\u2019t even exist any longer at all.<\/p>\n

And the long-term unemployed have additional strikes against them: \u00a0convincing an employer to hire a homeless shelter resident, or someone dependent on mass transit, or someone without a proper work wardrobe or a means of showering daily and keeping clothes clean, or a toothless applicant, is all the more difficult, especially in a weak market when that employer has other choices.<\/p>\n

How, then, do they survive? \u00a0They write of various efforts to acquire cash: \u00a0one woman they profile donates plasma as many times as the donation center will allow. \u00a0They collect recyclables (though they\u2019re limited by their ability to store and transport them). \u00a0Another operated a small store selling snacks in her tiny Delta town, using food stamps to buy inventory at the grocery store in a town further away, then selling it in her living room, marked up. \u00a0They sell food stamps; the authors say that the USDA\u2019s recent audit determined that food stamp fraud occurs at a level of 1.3% of overall benefits, but among the cashless poor, this seems more routine. \u00a0(In one case the authors cite, a mother-of-13 in the Deep South, she sells so much of the food stamp benefit that the kids are seriously undernourished.) \u00a0They sell access to the kids\u2019 Social Security numbers for others to use to claim the EITC, splitting the proceeds. \u00a0And the women sell their bodies, not necessarily in the form of prostitution per se, though this happens as well, but in the form of a \u201cfriend\u201d with whom there\u2019s an understanding that they have sex and he covers some of her expenses. \u00a0In other cases, households fall below $2 per day because a member of the household collects Social Security disability benefits, but that case must stretch for larger numbers of dependents; in the family they profiled, a man supported his wife and several grown children and their children, 22 in all, in a three-bedroom house, on his Social Security disability benefits.<\/p>\n

These individuals also learn the ins and outs of every charitable benefit: \u00a0the soup kitchens or food giveaways, the backpacks when school starts, the winter coats, the free clinics, and so on.<\/p>\n

And, as far as housing is concerned, they double-up, they triple-up, they bounce from one shelter to another, they stay with any relatives who\u2019ll take them.<\/p>\n

The people she profiles, though lacking jobs now, have worked in the past \u2014 several who were cashiers, another cleaning foreclosed houses, another as part of a hotel housekeeping staff, and other such unskilled work. \u00a0One (the disabled grandfather) even owned several pizza restaurants, but lost everything. \u00a0And they continue to look for work, pounding the pavement without success. \u00a0Why did they lose their jobs? \u00a0In one case, a transportation failure. \u00a0In another, an accusation of theft from the register. \u00a0The housecleaner quit because the fumes and chemicals from these houses were making her sick. \u00a0In others, it\u2019s simply blamed on the economy \u2014 but there\u2019s also an acknowledgement (though excused by poverty) that these people are not entirely mentally stable, and prone to making bad decisions.<\/p>\n

What do the authors prescribe as solutions?<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Job creation: \u00a0both in government subsidies to private employers and large-scale expansion of government jobs.<\/li>\n
  2. Supports for workers, such as emergency transportation or child care and advocacy in helping workers keep their jobs.<\/li>\n
  3. Boosts in the minimum wage.<\/li>\n
  4. Pursuit of wage-theft violators.<\/li>\n
  5. Require employers to schedule work with enough advance notice that workers can plan, and can succeed in holding onto their jobs.<\/li>\n
  6. Revive cash assistance for those without work.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    So that\u2019s my summary. \u00a0Commentary coming next.<\/p>\n

    Image:\u00a0By Raysonho @ Open Grid Scheduler \/ Grid Engine (Own work) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    This book is not a polemic. \u00a0It largely busies itself with simply explaining the lives of those in deep, deep poverty, both in general and by means of a small number of case studies, with some context to begin with and prescriptions at the end. \u00a0The book doesn\u2019t assign villians, or launch into partisan rants, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2209,"featured_media":1386,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[350,299],"class_list":["post-4365","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-poverty","tag-welfare"],"yoast_head":"\nFrom the library: $2.00 a Day: Living on Almost Nothing in America, by Kathryn J. Edin and H. Luke Shaefer<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"This book is not a polemic. \u00a0It largely busies itself with simply explaining the lives of those in deep, deep poverty, both in general and by means of a\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2016\/04\/from-the-library-2-00-a-day-living-on-almost-nothing-in-america-by-kathryn-j-edin-and-h-luke-shaefer.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"From the library: $2.00 a Day: Living on Almost Nothing in America, by Kathryn J. Edin and H. Luke Shaefer\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This book is not a polemic. \u00a0It largely busies itself with simply explaining the lives of those in deep, deep poverty, both in general and by means of a\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2016\/04\/from-the-library-2-00-a-day-living-on-almost-nothing-in-america-by-kathryn-j-edin-and-h-luke-shaefer.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Jane the Actuary\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-04-22T16:24:28+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/533\/2015\/02\/library.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"768\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"576\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jane the Actuary\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Jane the Actuary\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"6 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2016\/04\/from-the-library-2-00-a-day-living-on-almost-nothing-in-america-by-kathryn-j-edin-and-h-luke-shaefer.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2016\/04\/from-the-library-2-00-a-day-living-on-almost-nothing-in-america-by-kathryn-j-edin-and-h-luke-shaefer.html\",\"name\":\"From the library: $2.00 a Day: Living on Almost Nothing in America, by Kathryn J. Edin and H. Luke Shaefer\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2016-04-22T16:24:28+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2016-04-22T16:24:28+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#\/schema\/person\/ed9b99e0bd58c5eeeebae6b82fa5a77a\"},\"description\":\"This book is not a polemic. \u00a0It largely busies itself with simply explaining the lives of those in deep, deep poverty, both in general and by means of a\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2016\/04\/from-the-library-2-00-a-day-living-on-almost-nothing-in-america-by-kathryn-j-edin-and-h-luke-shaefer.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2016\/04\/from-the-library-2-00-a-day-living-on-almost-nothing-in-america-by-kathryn-j-edin-and-h-luke-shaefer.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2016\/04\/from-the-library-2-00-a-day-living-on-almost-nothing-in-america-by-kathryn-j-edin-and-h-luke-shaefer.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"From the library: $2.00 a Day: Living on Almost Nothing in America, by Kathryn J. Edin and H. Luke Shaefer\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/\",\"name\":\"Jane the Actuary\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#\/schema\/person\/ed9b99e0bd58c5eeeebae6b82fa5a77a\",\"name\":\"Jane the Actuary\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8d6a493d380e87d49599d5487691c9fc?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8d6a493d380e87d49599d5487691c9fc?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Jane the Actuary\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/author\/actuaryjane\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"From the library: $2.00 a Day: Living on Almost Nothing in America, by Kathryn J. Edin and H. Luke Shaefer","description":"This book is not a polemic. \u00a0It largely busies itself with simply explaining the lives of those in deep, deep poverty, both in general and by means of a","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2016\/04\/from-the-library-2-00-a-day-living-on-almost-nothing-in-america-by-kathryn-j-edin-and-h-luke-shaefer.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"From the library: $2.00 a Day: Living on Almost Nothing in America, by Kathryn J. Edin and H. Luke Shaefer","og_description":"This book is not a polemic. \u00a0It largely busies itself with simply explaining the lives of those in deep, deep poverty, both in general and by means of a","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2016\/04\/from-the-library-2-00-a-day-living-on-almost-nothing-in-america-by-kathryn-j-edin-and-h-luke-shaefer.html","og_site_name":"Jane the Actuary","article_published_time":"2016-04-22T16:24:28+00:00","og_image":[{"width":768,"height":576,"url":"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/533\/2015\/02\/library.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Jane the Actuary","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Jane the Actuary","Est. reading time":"6 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2016\/04\/from-the-library-2-00-a-day-living-on-almost-nothing-in-america-by-kathryn-j-edin-and-h-luke-shaefer.html","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2016\/04\/from-the-library-2-00-a-day-living-on-almost-nothing-in-america-by-kathryn-j-edin-and-h-luke-shaefer.html","name":"From the library: $2.00 a Day: Living on Almost Nothing in America, by Kathryn J. Edin and H. Luke Shaefer","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#website"},"datePublished":"2016-04-22T16:24:28+00:00","dateModified":"2016-04-22T16:24:28+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#\/schema\/person\/ed9b99e0bd58c5eeeebae6b82fa5a77a"},"description":"This book is not a polemic. \u00a0It largely busies itself with simply explaining the lives of those in deep, deep poverty, both in general and by means of a","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2016\/04\/from-the-library-2-00-a-day-living-on-almost-nothing-in-america-by-kathryn-j-edin-and-h-luke-shaefer.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2016\/04\/from-the-library-2-00-a-day-living-on-almost-nothing-in-america-by-kathryn-j-edin-and-h-luke-shaefer.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2016\/04\/from-the-library-2-00-a-day-living-on-almost-nothing-in-america-by-kathryn-j-edin-and-h-luke-shaefer.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"From the library: $2.00 a Day: Living on Almost Nothing in America, by Kathryn J. Edin and H. Luke Shaefer"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/","name":"Jane the Actuary","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#\/schema\/person\/ed9b99e0bd58c5eeeebae6b82fa5a77a","name":"Jane the Actuary","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8d6a493d380e87d49599d5487691c9fc?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8d6a493d380e87d49599d5487691c9fc?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Jane the Actuary"},"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/author\/actuaryjane"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4365","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2209"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4365"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4365\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1386"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4365"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4365"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4365"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}