Chutes and Ladders

About this book

"Now that the welfare system has been largely dismantled, the fate of America's poor depends to a large degree on what happens to them in the low-wage labor market. Katherine S. Newman explores whether the poorest workers and families benefited from the tight labor markets and good economic times of the late 1990s." "To supplement her ethnographic portraits, Newman examines the national picture, showing that patterns around the country paralleled the findings from some of New York's most depressed neighborhoods. More than a story of the shifting fortunes of the labor market, Chutes and Ladders asks probing questions about the motivations of low-wage workers, the dreams they have for the future, and their understanding of the rules of the game."--Jacket.