Book Review

When Work Disappears

In this book, William Julius Wilson tries to find out why work disappears in the inner city. Trying to find a solution to this problem is detrimental to the safety and economy of those who are involved in the inner city. For instance, as jobs disappear, more people are out on the streets and selling drugs to pay their bills. As drug deals are increasing, so is the number of crimes that are taking place which results in over-crowding in jails and so and so forth. There is a public debate about what actually causes the lack of employment because instead of finding a direct answer to the question, many people are trying to place blame on someone/something rather than "recognizing and dealing withe the complex and changing realities that have led to economic distress for many Americans." (WWD page xiii) Many place the biggest factor of unemployment on race. In the first chapter, many residents tell about how the streets used to be so lively and that they remember a "rush hour". Many residents felt that people without jobs should be able to go out and get one and not have to spend so much time waiting and searching. Another resident said that upon her return to her Chicago

neighborhood, she was absolutely appalled. She described Sixty-Third street as having anything and everything you could possibly want and upon her return it was in shambles. In 1950, two-thirds of this particular neighborhood (Woodland) were Caucasion. By 1960, the white population had declined to only 10%. Many parents in these neighborhoods said that they were really concerned with the level of violent crime. One mother said she often saw elderly women knocked down and robbed of their pension checks. Many families even put bars up in their windows to keep burgalars from getting in that way. They do not like the neighborhoods they live in but have no other choice because they cannot afford it anywhere else. They really feel for their older family members and neighbors because they know they stand no chance isf someone tries to rob them. Chapter two focuses on how the nationwide decline of the skill level of workers results in a higher poverty level. In 1987-89, a lowskilled male worker was unemployed for about two more months than he would have been twenty years before that. On the same note, in the late 1980s, the number of men who had permanently dropped out of the workforce had more than doubled the count from the late 1960s. Even if these low-skilled workers do get lucky enough to find a temporary job, they are still facing challenges when it comes to

climbing up the economic ladder. There are not a lot of higher-paying jobs to people with no specific skills so most of their minimum wage paying jobs are dead ends. Since 1967, one study estimates that since 1967 the number of prime age workers that aren't in school, working and are not looking for jobs have more than doubled for whites and nonwhites. (WWD pg 26) The demand for lower-income jobs is even less for AfricanAmericans because they tend to live in neighborhoods farther away from these jobs which leads to a lack of reliable transportation. Most of the residents that are living in these low-income housing developments do not own cars. When they find a way to take public transportation, often times they have no luck finding a job and regret spending the money they could have saved trying to get into the suburbs. Yet, when an occasional person does get lucky and scores a job in the suburbs, people question it. A woman (on page 41) talks about how her son works in an all-white community and is often stopped and asked what he is doing or what business he has there. She said her and other feel like the government is trying to keep them all separated. She said that there are no jobs in the projects so when people do venture out and find a job, they soon become victims of racial profiling.

One woman (on page 36) even said that the increase in technology eliminated the need for certain jobs in some businesses because they could be done quicker and more efficiently with expensive machinery.
Chapter three explains to us how the behavior of those tenants in ghetto neighorhoods effect the structure of opportunity. A young, educated black teen feels as if the pressure is on for kids his age to be like the drug dealer they see driving the flashy new car. He explains that you get out of the neighborhood whatever you choose to get out of it. He said that if you feel you're being raised in a neighborhood in which all you see is negative things, you will result in something negative. He encourages people to find the good opportunities and seize them to make something better for yourself.