Resilience

In the book The Working Poor by David Shipler, he talks about how all throughout America there are hardworking Americans who work low wage jobs just to make it by. This is not anything new to the American public who are constantly attempting to better their lives. Quality jobs are almost impossible to find without a college education, and even that does not guarantee you success in this world. Even with that being said, Americans have always found a way to survive and make it by. David Shipler illustrates this for us in this novel. He talks about how poverty affects peoples' outlooks on life in general, and also, people who are in poverty find trouble getting out of poverty, but they make it by. In this novel, the author is knowledgeable in terms of the tough times many people around the world are experiencing.

Low-wage Employees Deliver

Millions of Americans work hard for extremely low wages . In David Shipler’s novel, he says, “ Working at the edge of poverty means working on the coldest side of corporate America" (62). He is saying that companies are able to take advantage of under paying their employees. With the national minimum wage set at 7.25 an hour, these workers are working full-time, and they are still in poverty.  Most of these jobs have no way of moving up the ladder. For example, a job like McDonald's where many of the workers are hardworking, may lose the drive to do their best once they realize there is no way of really making good money; however, then, they come to realize that they need to bust their bust in order to keep the job.  Many Americans work dead end jobs just to pay the bills, and they are living paycheck to paycheck. Shipler illustrates how the less fortunate people seem to accept being in poverty since so few come out of it.

Relevance to the Great Depression

In 1929, Americans were tested financially more than ever before. The Great Depression was sparked by the stock market crash, and it was the worst economic collapse in the history of the modern industrial world. This forced banks to fail, businesses to close, and more than 15 million Americans to lose their jobs.  Even though families were tested and many became homeless, they never stopped fighting. In response to asking someone who is in poverty how it feels to be poor, Shipler says, "We don't feel very poor. We just feel poor when we can't go to the doctor, or we can't get the car fixed" (10). This shows how people in poverty are resilient. The power and ability of the people to want to fight back after depression hits is quite remarkable; however, I feel it would be safe to assume that if many of the wealthy or well off individuals that have never experienced poverty went in poverty, they would collapse. 

An image of the percent of people in the world at different poverty levels.

Illegal Immigrants

Additionally, there are illegal immigrants in America who are taking jobs away from citizens. The illegal immigrants accept dirt poor wages in order to surpass the actual citizens of the United States of America of receiving a job offer. There are a lot of Americans coming out of college in debt and are unable to find jobs in their field. So they pay tons of money to attend these schools and sometimes they cannot find a job that is in their field. For many their only option is to work a low wage job just to have some income. Even though the success rate is not where it needs to be teenagers are still choosing to go to college. David Shipler says “While the United States has enjoyed unprecedented affluence, law-wage employees have been testing the American doctrine that hard work cures poverty" (4). He believes that Americans grow up believing that hard work cures poverty, and they are willing to work hard to achieve their goals. 

Future for the 'American Dream'

Overall, the American dream will always try to be achieved by many throughout this country. It is only natural for society to always strive to do better than their past, and this includes the financial aspect of society. Teens risk thousands of dollars at a chance of getting a high quality job every day. Even though there is a lot of poverty in the United States right now, many of these Americans do not feel poor. David Shipler states, “When the poor or newly poor are asked to define poverty, however, they talk not only about what’s in the wallet but what’s in the mind or the heart” (10). This shows that even though they may be poor financially, they still have not lost hope. Many have believed that the 'American dream' has died, but I think that it is just starting with resilience being the driving force behind the wheel. 

The Verdict
In conclusion many Americans work low wage jobs just to survive. Everyday Americans lose jobs that they have had for years and they may have to work another job that is in a completely different field, just because that is the only job available. Times now are as tough as ever and even a college education does not guarantee an exceptional job. To many people focus on how much money their potential career will make them without considering how many people are applying for that same job. The best thing to do is just find something that sparks an interest and just hope all the hard put in ends up rewarding because nothing in this life is guaranteed.  

Shipler, David. The Working Poor: Invisible in America. Vintage Books, 2005. Print. 
"Redefiningthe Dream." The American Dream. N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Mar. 2014.