For me, Shipler’s nonfiction novel The Working Poor has best demonstrated the low wage life. His great use of statistics from the Clinton and Bush eras are used well along with quotes from people that are flirting with the poverty line. He also does a great job of simplifying the differences between skilled and non-skilled wages as well as the difficulties of receiving welfare or government financial help. However, one of the examples he used that hit me the most was on page ten when Shipler gave a few quotes from a man named Frank Dickerson. Before he spent three years in prison, Frank was a janitor who supported his family with his janitorial wages and the large amount of money he made selling drugs. Dickerson’s justification was that the janitorial gig was barely livable, and in order to give his wife and kid’s decent clothing, food, and a nice area to live, he had to sell drugs. Dickerson’s called it living ‘comfortably’.
Surprisingly, this little part in Shipler’s introduction really helped me realize the topic for my second hypertext. Previously, I had been wavering on a couple main ideas, but Dickerson’s story brought narrowed it down to one thing: the low wage life of janitors and maintenance workers. For the past couple of years, I’ve really started to notice those people fixing or cleaning up around me wherever I go, and I can never get that feeling of guilt when I’m around them. I look at my nice clothes, my expensive university, and my lackluster way of life, and I feel bad for the workers at schools who work long hours and most of the time never hear a thank you.