The State of Working America, 2006/2007 (State of Working America)

"It is the inequality of wealth, argue the authors, rather than new technology (as some would have it), that is responsible for the failure of America's workplace to keep pace with the country's economic growth. The State of Working America is a well-written, soundly argued, and important reference book."-Library Journal

"If you want to know what happened to the economic well-being of the average American in the past decade or so, this is the book for you. It should be required reading for Americans of all political persuasions."-Richard Freeman, Harvard University "A truly comprehensive and useful book that provides a reality check on loose statements about U.S. labor markets. It should be cheered by all Americans who earn their living from work."-William Wolman, chief economist, CNBC's Business Week "The State of Working America provides very valuable factual and analytic material on the economic conditions of American workers. It is the very best source of information on this important subject."-Ray Marshall, University of Texas, former Secretary of Labor

"An indispensable work . . . on family income, wages, taxes, employment, and the distribution of wealth."-Simon Head, The New York Review of Books "No matter what political camp you're in, this is the single most valuable book I know of about the state of America, period. It is the most referenced, most influential resource book of its kind."-Jeff Madrick, author, The End of Affluence "This book is the single best yardstick for measuring whether or not our economic policies are doing enough to ensure that our economy can, once again, grow for everybody."-Richard A. Gephardt "The best place to review the latest developments in changes in the distribution of income and wealth."-Lester Thurow

The State of Working America, prepared biennially since 1988 by the Economic Policy Institute, includes a wide variety of data on family incomes, wages, taxes, unemployment, wealth, and poverty-data that enable the authors to closely examine the effect of the economy on the living standards of the American people.

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All Customer Reviews
Average Customer Review:
0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

waste, 2008-07-05
Yes, a lot of pages in this book and plenty of tables.
As title says--The state of working America-- and I am part of it I expect to see reflections of real life and this part is missing.
All the authors talk is wages,wages and more wages.
What is real life? Real life is prices,what is available, crime considerations, where to live etc.
Authors take family as main entity which is far from reality; reality is 51% of american households are single not family and this is the trend.
Mobility is second consideration as working people have to move to survive. Yes, my income define where I live and how crime affect my decisions and my income define what I eat and where and my income define why I am single. And, yes, we have 47 millions americans without health insurance and about 5 millions homeless which are part of working America. But this is not reflected in book.
The main question of this type of book should be--why nothing changes and how to change.


4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

the hobo philosopher, 2007-06-27
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.


7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

Change Is Needed Now and Here's Why, 2007-04-30
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.

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