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Portraits of the Near Poor in America
Beacon Press
September 2007
On Sale: September 5, 2007
288 pages ISBN: 0807041394 EAN: 9780807041390 Hardcover
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Non-Fiction
An urgent examination of the lives of millions of
hardworking Americans—neither poor nor middle class—who live
without a safety net The Missing Class gives voice to the 57 million
Americans—including 21 percent of the nation's children— who
are sandwiched between poor and middle class. While
government programs help the needy and politicians woo the
more fortunate, the "Missing Class" is largely invisible and
ignored. Through the experiences of nine families, Katherine
Newman and Victor Tan Chen trace the unique problems faced
by individuals in this large and growing demographic— the
"near poor"—who have transformed their lives through hard
work and determination. Newman and Chen explain where these families came from, how
they've struggled to make a decent living, and why they're
stuck without a safety net. The question for the Missing
Class is not whether they're doing better than the truly
poor—they are. The question is whether these individuals—on
the razor's edge of subsistence—are safely ensconced in the
Missing Class or in danger of losing it all. An eloquent
argument for the need to think about inequality in a broader
way, The Missing Class has much to tell us about whether the
American dream still exists for those willing to sacrifice
for it.
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