1 comments about The Natural Survival of Work: Job Creation and Job Destruction in a Growing Economy.

1. This book is fascinating. You learn a lot on the labor market and it is really easy to read.

5 comments about Time Off! The Unemployed Guide to San Francisco (Time Off! the Unemployed Guide to...).

1. Yesterday was my one year anniversary of not working. I picked up this book shortly afterwards and as a result, I have to say that this last year was the best year of my life. I have to highly recommend it for the unemployed of the SF Bay Area. Not only does it provide some interesting, low-cost things to do in the City, but also (and more importantly), it addresses the psychology of unemployment. It's easy to get in a funk when you're unemployed - this book will help you see it for a chance of an excellent adventure.



2. I've been reading this book while commuting to work. Yes, I wrote work! I still have one, but I have uncertainties. So I thought "Hmm this can be a good how-to book just in case in a couple of weeks I get fired or laid off. Excellent! hehehe." The book is very helpful as it suggests where to eat and shop when your tiny little checking account is about depleted. Saying that, they mentioned as well how to obtain/maintain your finances. Humor and tidbits of SF made this book a best buy. There are some websites that are no longer up, but not to worry, just email the writers for updates. Whether you're working or not, who's in a tight budget or no budget at all, this is a great book! And.. you'll be surprise of how much you don't know of SF, I don't till this book.



3. Please note: This book contains an error. When visiting the Koret Health & Recreation Center, the Red Pass ONLY allows you access before 2pm (Monday-Thursday) and anytime on Friday-Sunday. You can NOT attend a group exercise class if time restrictions apply.



4. In the City by the Bay and its surrounding other cities. Change and Restructure in the Work place is so common that Time Off from the corporate grind is expected and can be useful too. This book shows you how to make excellent use of your Time Off in between the next career adventure.



5. Escaping unscathed from the dot-com fallout, Dean LaTourrette and Kristine Enea have taken a cue from Cary Grant's character in 1938's "Holiday" when he chose to take an extended period of adventurous unemployment despite pressure from his fiancée's family to accept a staid, unfulfilling job at a bank. Although they state that they have been "successfully unemployed since 2001", each has found the financial means to pursue their creative interests in order to build an ideal leisure lifestyle. Their most renowned outlet has been their "Time Off!" books, which I think are terrific, eminently readable resources for those wondering how to handle the abrupt reversal between time and money when between jobs.
   
   I still have a ragged, used copy of the first edition which was called "The Unemployed Guide to San Francisco". The switch to "Leisure" seems quite intentional, especially since much of the text is directed to anyone in a high-stress situation. In fact, the first part of the book is devoted to the art of leisure, and it gives informative stepwise advice on managing the transition to unemployment. This section covers not only the psychological aspects, including nagging feelings of guilt and dismantling time schedules based on going to work, but also practical advice on dealing with dwindling financial resources. I particularly like how they clearly define the three phases of money management - Finance 101 for planning and budgeting, Finance 202 for paying off debt and keeping a cash reserve, and Finance 303 for getting cash in the immediate term.
   
   By far the biggest part of the book, Part 2 is a cleverly organized guide to free or low-cost activities in San Francisco, including museums, festivals, volunteer organizations and a great matrix of the more famous coffeehouses. Granted some of the information is dated (e.g., the National Maritime Museum is closed until 2009), this was still immensely helpful to me when I was unemployed and trying to live comfortably in one of the world's most expensive cities. There is even a large section on travel and how you can reasonably journey to far-flung locales on a budget. It's inevitable that the book should end with how to manage the transition back to the job hunt and work, and the co-authors remain steadfast in ensuring you incorporate leisure even during this process. The revised book feels a bit heavier, but the graphics remain pleasing and the text relatively light-hearted. I think it's a great instructional resource for those trying to make the best of a most trying time.

3 comments about Women and the Criminal Justice System (2nd Edition).

1. Although laid out like a textbook(numerous summary statements and bullet points) and encompassing an enormous amount of literature, the writing is crisp and interesting, liberally sprinkled with quotes, original interviews, vignettes and illustrative sidebars. The chapters fall into the basic categories of women as imprisoned perpetrators, women as victims of crimes, and the place of women in the law enforcement system. The book is a joint effort from a social work professor and a sociology/criminal justice professor. THis resulted in a fruitful interplay between the objective and subjective voice in the presentation of this material. The subject is explicitly approached from an empowerment perspective, which focuses on giving people the information they need to navigate the issues most effectively for helping themselves and others.The assumption is that issues of gender,social class and racial oppression enter into all aspects of the subject.This is a valuable and rare resource in this area of human concern. Reviewed in Social Work Forum Newsletter



2. Van Wormer and Bartollas' book provides a very broad discussion of all facets of women in the criminal justice system, such as rape, spouse abuse, women in prison, women in law enforcement, and women in the legal profession. Because of its broad range of information, it provides a strong book for courses in criminal justice programs involving women. It also provides a strong reader for lay persons who are just interested in knowing the issues involving women and the criminal justice system. In the College of Social Work at Ohio State University, I teach a course entitled social work practice in corrections and would adopt this book as a second book for my course to provide students with broad perspective of women issues in criminal justice.



3. Yet another waste of text. The same old vitim plight of the poor poor female in our modern society. I need a tissue! this book would have gotten a better review if I had read it in the 1960's.

   Get over it.

2 comments about Home and Work: Housework, Wages, and the Ideology of Labor in the Early Republic.

1. Boydson goes to prove that the average woman ha had to work long and hard hours that have been often under paid and overworked while the men get their payment, the women must endure long hours and work extra hard. This book seeks to tell how the women have built the economy and have been one of the major leaders yet do not get the credit that they deserve. Think about the long hours put in spinning, canning, and doing the house work without air conditioning and yet still how it is today! This si the book to read for all historians.



2. I have to modify significantly the previous reviewer's take on this book. Boydston does not argue that women did all the work while men got all the pay. What she argues is that because women did as much unpaid work as they did, factories benefited more from male labor than they might have if they'd considered and economically rewarded the female labor that went into making the male a productive worker. In other words, capitalists effectively got two for the price of one when they hired a male worker. Without a female working for free at home while practicing home economics to keep expenses low, the American labor-profit system in the early republic would have been unsustainable. To make this system palatable, Boydston argues in her concluding chapter (indeed, the chapter that really is the point of the book), the culture generated a pastoral mystique of housework . . . images and ways of talking about housework that made it seem not only natural, but part of the beauty and splendor of nature.
   
   The previous reviewer's take suggests that this book in some way could be read as perpetuating a simplistic male/female gender war mentality. Instead, where this book really leads is to a common enemy of the mass of men and women: an exploitative political economy that thrives on the poverty of the family. Women entering the marketplace has done little to solve the problem. Indeed, what Boydston shows is that women have always been in the marketplace. If you think about it after reading this book, it becomes pretty clear that in the postmodern, post industrial age, capital is still getting two workers for the price of one: women working for less pay than men and men working for less pay than they have before. Meanwhile, the economy absorbs the on average lower female wage in a network of childcare services (daycare, formula, etc.) and "busy lifestyle" services (convenience food, maid services, etc.) that leave the situation little changed. Meanwhile, of course, the marketing machine continues working overtime to naturalize this situation.

No comments about Women Adrift: Independent Wage Earners in Chicago, 1880-1930 (Women in Culture and Society Series).

5 comments about Nickel and Dimed: Undercover in Low-wage America.

1. The most unsettling aspect of Barbara Ehrenreich's eye-opening foray into the world of the working poor is that the situation hasn't improved. In fact, it's gotten worse. The U.S. economy was booming in the late 1990s when she began her project, working anonymously in various minimum-wage jobs and reporting about the experience. Though she steps in and out of the lives of the minimum-wage workers who befriend her, she is a very powerful, effective advocate for them. In her book, she shows that living decently on about $7 an hour (still the minimum wage in most states) is impossible. However, Ehrenreich gives it a try in three cities, working as a waitress, housekeeper and Wal-Mart clerk. She reports from the front lines, where the working poor eat potato chips for dinner and sleep in fleabag motels, and she does the same. She finds that minimum-wage workers lead a dreary existence, toiling away in obscurity day after day with little hope, just getting by as long as they don't fall ill, need dental work or get in a car wreck. The terribly sad part is that many see no light at the end of the tunnel. getAbstract finds that Ehrenreich is a gifted writer with keen perceptions and a wry sense of humor. Her narrative flows effortlessly as she enlightens, educates and entertains. If only she had a magic wand.



2. I originally read this book when it was first published! I found it hard hitting, have quoted from it frequently and have recommended it to numerous indivduals.
   I feel her book does not go far enough because, let us be honest, she knew she would "get out" of the circumstances it was an experiement for her, so that kept her form hitting the despair, total desperation, and fear that her children would never have full tummies; this si the plight of the working poor everywhere in America. To say it is not is to close ones eyes and live in ignorance



3. This book tells the reality for too many Americans, who don't qualify for the Bush/McCain tax cuts. Sad, and scary, reading.



4. There are no words that I could use to describe this woman's attitude that haven't already been sprinkled throughout Amazon reviews; whiny, preachy, arrogant, self-righteous, annoying...you get the point. She seems to be the worst kind of person: the kind that pretends to care about the plight of others in order to further her own career. I'd put her up there with Jesse and Reverend Al. Allow me to quote her actual words:
   
   "I originally sought what I assumed would be a relatively easy job in hotel housekeeping and found myself steered into waitressing, no doubt because of my ethnicity and English skills."
   
   "Unlike many low-wage workers, I have the further advantage of being white and a native English speaker."
   
   "I ruled out places like New York and L.A., for example, where the working class consists mainly of people of color and a white woman with unaccented English seeking entry-level jobs might only look desperate or weird."
   
   I'm sorry, is she white and privileged? I didn't happen to catch that part. Also, yeah, it would look desperate. That's what you get when you're actually poor. You know, desperate.
   
   She laces the book with many footnotes and statistics, which are actually interesting, but she clearly has no idea what to do when she becomes the statistic. This is the prime example of what happens when you study all the charts, and you see them all laid on in black and white, then try to actually claim them as your own life and look foolish. You know how many homeless people lived on the streets from `90-'95? Okay, good. They're going to shut your power off because you're late on the payments. What are you going to do with that statistic?
   
   "Ideally, at least if I were seeking to replicate the experience of a woman entering the workforce from welfare, I would have had a couple children in tow...In addition to being mobile and unencumbered, I am probably in a lot better health than most members of the long-term low-wage workforce. I had everything going for me."
   
   Wow. All that and a killer personality. You really do have everything. Way to go. You've successfully exploited and no doubt offended the people whose lives your book claims to showcase.
   
   In fairness, she is able to step outside of herself and note that "almost anyone could do what I did...In fact, millions of Americans do it everyday, with a lot less fanfare and dithering." Although, I can't help but feel like she decided to write a book about what it was like for her to be poor for a few months, instead of what it's like to actually be poor.
   
   All of the above quotes come from the first 10 pompous pages. I decided then that I did not care for this book, but made myself read until I couldn't take it anymore, which occurred on page 32. One of my favorite examples of her detachment is when she turns down a job that pays $7 an hour (in the mid-90s, mind you) because it "involves standing in one spot for eight hours a day."
   
   Here's another funny one: "About a third of a server's job is "side work" invisible to customers." I just think it's hilarious that she put the term "side work" in quotes like that, as if nobody had ever heard the term before.
   
   I am honestly offended by her ignorance of a subject she claims to have not only researched, but "lived". I know people who live this book. I live this book. I've never known anyone to turn down any job because they asked for a urine screen, unless they were going to undoubtedly fail. Actually, they'd take the test anyway, and cross their fingers. Not Barbara, though. It's beneath her. "If you want to stack Cheerios boxes or vacuum hotel rooms" she writes, "you have to be willing to squat down and pee in front of a health worker." This doesn't make any sense to her, stating that "$6 and a couple of dimes to start with are not enough, I decide, to compensate for this indignity."
   
   You know what's indignity? When they take your kids away because you can't feed them. That's indignity.
   
   I never made it to the second chapter, but the first few sentences of the opening paragraph are intriguing at the least:
   
   "I chose Maine for its whiteness." Very first words of the chapter. Believe me, it gets better: "This might not make Maine an ideal setting in which to hunker down for the long haul, but it made it the perfect place for a blue-eyed, English-speaking Caucasian to infiltrate the low-wage workforce, no questions asked."
   
   Caucasian? Who says that? This woman is very misguided. She did this "experiment" about ten years ago, but I think white people worked minimum wage jobs then, as they do now. Except in Maine, apparently.
   
   This is not a book about being poor. It is a book about a bored, middle-class woman who decides to go slumming, and she doesn't even follow her own rules that closely. She busts out her debit card when needed, she turns down jobs actual poor people would kill to have, and she does it all with the empathy and compassion of Adolf Hitler. There are people who think this book deserved its bestseller status. I'm not one of them. There are people who hail it as a classic, those who think that this woman has done the working-class a favor by writing this garbage. Those people are not working-class people. Those people are not my people.
   
   2 stars, simply because I had to keep reading in order to find out how she would insult me next.



5. Many of us have worked at jobs that barely paid the bills, and paid us much less than we considered we were worth. An increasing number of people live lives dependent on such jobs. How does one make it in a country where the rents, food costs, transportation costs and health care costs routinely outpace the rise of minimum wages? Barbara Ehrenreich tried an experiment - she took on the task of finding such jobs, one in cleaning, one in restaurant serving, and one in retail, to see if she could make it even for a month on such wages.
   
   Ehrenreich confesses to cheating - her transportation was always assured, she started with a comfortable sum, and really didn't have to worry about the longer-term issues of health care or saving for the unexpected. Still, the experiment was eye-opening. Despite the fact that the population served by places that cater to low-wage earners such as weekly residential hotels and food kitchens, it often costs more in time and money for people to take advantage of such things. The amount of time Ehrenreich spent trying to get free food amounted to a considerable sum, even if calculated at the minimum wage. Of course, this was also time that could not be spent in terms of education or job searching - how can one improve one's lot in life if basic survival needs take up so much time and energy?
   
   I work with people and teach in schools where people, even if they aren't living on absolute minimum wages, still exist in a state where an auto breakdown can make the difference between finishing the semester or not, or where a computer breakdown or inability to get to a free library computer can make the difference of getting through a degree program. Most low-wage earners are among the hardest working people in the country, as Ehrenreich discovers in her experiment, and many have family obligations on top of the job-and-a-half or two-job life (and, of course, many of those are single mothers). From big box stores to small businesses, the routine infringement of privacy and personal rights was intense, but something that apparently is treated as routine, both by those who invade and those invaded.
   
   Ehrenreich's book has been used as community reads and common reading projects at various schools and colleges. There are some critiques worth mentioning - Ehrenreich's politics are on the liberal side, and that turns off some readers (including, as it happens, many who fall in the low-wage category). Her message can be distorted to fit different political agendas, not always of her intention. The experiment also presents a few slices of life that are far from a statistical or scientific study; as an anecdotal piece, this is very fascinating, but one needs to look elsewhere for facts and figures. As Ehrenreich states, however, it is hard to calculate in this bracket - the official poverty levels bear little relationship to who really is or is not poor, and that can vary from one part of the country to another. Ehrenreich's experiment also doesn't fully capture the experience of much of the poor, who also tend to be minorities; a bit of this poked through as Ehrenreich found she was sometimes considered for certain roles and not others just because she was not a minority.
   
   On the whole, this is a fascinating book, well worth reading by those of us in the more comfortable classes to see just what many have to go through to survive in our generally affluent society.

1 comments about Out of Work: Unemployment and Government in Twentieth Century America (Independent Studies in Political Economy).

1. Out of Work, the best economic history of 20th Century America. The authors document the crimes of government against Americans' economic well-being, an indictment of taxation and all the monstrous and stupid things our government has done to us.

No comments about Your Child in Film & Television (Self-Counsel Reference Series).

1 comments about Equilibrium Unemployment Theory - 2nd Edition.

1. The book is written by one of the pioneers of matching theory approach to unemployment theory. The book starts with very simple matching models and builds its way up by adding something at each chapter. So the book starts by a deterministic model of equilibrium with only labor as input. you see that first capital is added to the model, then dynamics of the model are discussed and balanced paths are derived. Then random elements and shocks are added,then heterogeneity among workers is considered and then search efforts and other elements are being added.
   
   I think the book is very well written and the flow of topics and ideas is smooth and easy to grasp. Verbal discussion and explanations are clear, informative and are always accompanied by the proper formulas and derivations. Note that the book covers only matching models of labor and completely ignores other types of models (like efficiency wage, implicit contracts, ...). Also chapters don't have exercises at the end, which I don't think is a major handicap for the book, as it is more meant for graduate level research.
   
   In general I think this book makes understanding the matching theory easy and anybody who wants to work on labor economics should know about this book.

1 comments about Win Your Unemployment Compensation Claim, 2E (Legal Survival Guides).

1. I got this book because I am an employee relations specialist responsible for overseeing unemployment claims. Reading this book gave me insight into what the ALJ's look for when claims are protested. I have since changed some of my responses to reflect what the judges are seeking in making their decisions.