When Work Disappears: The World of the New Urban PoorWilson, one of our foremost authorities on race and poverty, challenges decades of liberal and conservative pieties to look squarely at the devastating effects that joblessness has had on our urban ghettos. Marshaling a vast array of data and the personal stories of hundreds of men and women, Wilson persuasively argues that problems endemic to America's inner cities--from fatherless households to drugs and violent crime--stem directly from the disappearance of blue-collar jobs in the wake of a globalized economy. Wilson's achievement is to portray this crisis as one that affects all Americans, and to propose solutions whose benefits would be felt across our society. At a time when welfare is ending and our country's racial dialectic is more strained than ever, When Work Disappears is a sane, courageous, and desperately important work. "Wilson is the keenest liberal analyst of the most perplexing of all American problems...[This book is] more ambitious and more accessible than anything he has done before." --The New Yorker |
Contents
| 3 | |
Societal Changes and Vulnerable | 25 |
GhettoRelated Behavior and the Structure | 51 |
The Fading InnerCity Family | 87 |
The American Belief System Concerning | 149 |
Racial Antagonisms and RaceBased | 183 |
Social Policy Options | 207 |
APPENDIXES | 239 |
NOTES | 253 |
| 283 | |
| 309 | |
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Common terms and phrases
adults AFDC African-American American areas associated attitudes become behavior benefits black males cause census Center changes Chicago child concentrated concerns created cultural decline disadvantaged discussion drug economic effects employed employers employment example experience families feel force ghetto groups growing growth higher hire housing immigrants important income increased individuals industrial inner city inner-city black inner-city ghetto Institute interviews joblessness labor lack less levels live major marriage married minority mothers neighborhoods opportunities parents percent period Policy political poor population poverty Press problems programs proportion quotation race racial rates recent reported represent residents respondents result revealed rise Side skills social society structural suburbs survey tion tracts United University UPFLS urban wages welfare women workers York young