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3.46 AVERAGE
3.46 AVERAGE
challenging
informative
sad
slow-paced
This was good but also depressing...or maybe sobering.
She compelling documents the shrinking middle class. However, I expected her to contextualize the problem within the political, economic, and social histories that brought us here, and that's not this book.
Meh.
I wanted to like it, and in general, I think there are many issues with our structures. I wanted to explore those, not talk about the cost of child care for 200 pages.
The fact that there are 24-hour day care centers doesn’t bother me, as there have always been jobs that require overnight shifts. The fact people have to work 2 jobs because neither will schedule more than 29 hours so benefits are required sure does. So does the fact people get their schedule with no time to plan for it.
Adjuncts are indeed treated badly, and our focus on STEM at the cost of humanities bugs me. But could we explore the fact many companies require 4-year degrees to get a foot in the door and the cost of tuition (and where that money is going) instead of framing it with the story of a single mother of a special needs child?
Can we talk more about underpaid teachers without requiring they are dads?
Eesh.
I wanted to like it, and in general, I think there are many issues with our structures. I wanted to explore those, not talk about the cost of child care for 200 pages.
The fact that there are 24-hour day care centers doesn’t bother me, as there have always been jobs that require overnight shifts. The fact people have to work 2 jobs because neither will schedule more than 29 hours so benefits are required sure does. So does the fact people get their schedule with no time to plan for it.
Adjuncts are indeed treated badly, and our focus on STEM at the cost of humanities bugs me. But could we explore the fact many companies require 4-year degrees to get a foot in the door and the cost of tuition (and where that money is going) instead of framing it with the story of a single mother of a special needs child?
Can we talk more about underpaid teachers without requiring they are dads?
Eesh.
challenging
reflective
sad
slow-paced
This book is so important but so stressful to read.
challenging
informative
reflective
medium-paced
This was the first book that really helped me wrap my mind around how crippling the student debt crisis is for so many Americans.
Really highlights how the US gives very little support for those who raise children despite the push in society to have a family. On top of that is the general plight of singles and families who have to contend with higher housing costs, education costs, and healthcare costs while making essentially the same salary or even less than people made 20 and 30 years ago. A frustrating topic that requires big governmental change to fix.
A really thoughtful look at why it is the middle class is so frequently squeezed -- why we can't afford houses or luxuries that were once available to our parents and why it is we'll never be as well off as our parents were. It's about the value of many industries and how the value has declined; specifically, this book looks at things like child care work, teaching, and even law, and how those jobs which were once seen as important are now among the quickest disappearing, least paid, and most needed.
What I took away most from this book, though, was something I never spent a lot of time thinking about: the power of a universal basic income. Quart does a great job of explaining how something like that could really empower people who are in the position of choosing between working and, well, having children or taking care of a sick family member, which are both unpaid and underappreciated aspects of life in American culture. Having always lived here, I forget that the choice between having a child and having a career isn't the norm in other places; some countries even ENCOURAGE things like, oh, being human and creating other humans and taking care of other humans. Intellectually, it's a thing you know, but until you start thinking more deeply about it, you don't necessarily understand how disturbing it is that we simply choose not to and that instead, we punish people for being, well, people.
This does get a bit repetitive at times, and there are certainly aspects of the book which were a little underdeveloped -- there is discussion of race within the middle class, but the bulk of those who are discussed are white, straight, and living in urban areas -- but it was also interesting to see a better breakdown of those articles about people making 6-figures and being broke as a joke and why those are actually important things to think about (i.e., it's a real struggle in places like the Bay area, where even moving as far away from your work place means added costs in pricey, hard-to-find childcare, gas, and so forth).
Pair this one with [b:The View From Flyover Country: Essays by Sarah Kendzior|25437695|The View From Flyover Country Essays by Sarah Kendzior|Sarah Kendzior|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1430142565s/25437695.jpg|45199843]. I will say it made me really appreciate my college education experience and how nearly all of the professors were able to have lives outside of work because they were nearly all full professors, with full course loads, health insurance, and an actual salary, rather than living the cobbled together, unstable adjunct life. (But then again: I only wish we could have seen more about the middle class in rural America...which is also where I went to college).
What I took away most from this book, though, was something I never spent a lot of time thinking about: the power of a universal basic income. Quart does a great job of explaining how something like that could really empower people who are in the position of choosing between working and, well, having children or taking care of a sick family member, which are both unpaid and underappreciated aspects of life in American culture. Having always lived here, I forget that the choice between having a child and having a career isn't the norm in other places; some countries even ENCOURAGE things like, oh, being human and creating other humans and taking care of other humans. Intellectually, it's a thing you know, but until you start thinking more deeply about it, you don't necessarily understand how disturbing it is that we simply choose not to and that instead, we punish people for being, well, people.
This does get a bit repetitive at times, and there are certainly aspects of the book which were a little underdeveloped -- there is discussion of race within the middle class, but the bulk of those who are discussed are white, straight, and living in urban areas -- but it was also interesting to see a better breakdown of those articles about people making 6-figures and being broke as a joke and why those are actually important things to think about (i.e., it's a real struggle in places like the Bay area, where even moving as far away from your work place means added costs in pricey, hard-to-find childcare, gas, and so forth).
Pair this one with [b:The View From Flyover Country: Essays by Sarah Kendzior|25437695|The View From Flyover Country Essays by Sarah Kendzior|Sarah Kendzior|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1430142565s/25437695.jpg|45199843]. I will say it made me really appreciate my college education experience and how nearly all of the professors were able to have lives outside of work because they were nearly all full professors, with full course loads, health insurance, and an actual salary, rather than living the cobbled together, unstable adjunct life. (But then again: I only wish we could have seen more about the middle class in rural America...which is also where I went to college).