When Work Disappears: The World of the New Urban Poor. - book review

Public Interest, Fall, 1996 by Marvin Kosters

In his new book, When Work Disappears: The World of the New Urban Poor,(*) William Julius Wilson argues that "the disappearance of work and the consequences of that disappearance for both social and cultural life are the central problems in the inner-city ghetto." The consequences of joblessness, he says, are "more devastating than those of high neighborhood poverty." His analysis of this problem is commendable and not to be dismissed out of hand, but nor should it be uncritically accepted.

Joblessness is so pervasive, according to Wilson, that "for the first time in the twentieth century most adults in many inner-city ghetto neighborhoods are not working in a typical week." He presents data that document this claim for several poor, inner-city neighborhoods in Chicago. The data are supplemented by surveys conducted by Wilson and his colleagues of residents of these communities, offering insights into their own perceptions of what has happened to their neighborhoods.

The main themes of Wilson's diagnosis of the problems in inner-city ghetto neighborhoods are as follows. He emphasizes that many different factors cause joblessness. Trends in the labor market which affect everybody - e.g., the reduction in the availability of factory jobs, the decline in relative wages for less-skilled workers, and the increased difficulty the less skilled experience in finding a job - have especially deleterious effects on residents of inner-city ghettos. The decline in economic activity in the ghetto as many businesses leave, the growing locational mismatch between suburban jobs and inner-city workers, the change in the demographic composition of poor communities as the better off leave, and housing policies that foster residential concentration of the poor - all these trends, according to Wilson, enhance the labor-market difficulties of residents of the inner-city ghetto.

The loss of jobs has behavioral consequences, in Wilson's account. Children who grow up in communities where joblessness is pervasive do not have much contact with adults who work regularly, and the absence of work contributes to erosion of community. Habits and lifestyles in the community adapt to the absence of work, and attitudes of residents are infused with a contagious pessimism about their own ability to cope effectively. In addition, in view of limited earning capabilities and the alternatives to work that are available, not working often seems to be the rational choice. Regarding the causes of the breakdown of the traditional two-parent family, Wilson argues that the empirical evidence suggests that the availability of AFDC payments under welfare programs should not be a prominent item on the list. Social norms that link marriage to childbearing and childrearing are apparently weak among black ghetto residents, and parents apparently do not feel a strong responsibility for self-sufficiency in supporting their children.

Wilson also describes how employers, in their efforts to identify dependable, productive workers, contribute systematically, if inadvertently, to the difficulties that inner-city black residents of the ghetto face in their pursuit of jobs. Many employers apparently view blacks, especially black males, as lacking a strong commitment to work. Many black ghetto residents, in turn, see employers as holding negative views about their race and neighborhoods. A great deal of attention has been given to the behavior, values, and attitudes of the underclass, and to the development of a "culture of poverty," but Wilson argues that attitudinal surveys show that black residents of inner-city ghetto neighborhoods "verbally endorse" basic middle-class values and recognize the importance of individual initiative.

In developing his analysis of the causes of joblessness and how to respond to these problems, Wilson is aware of the need to cultivate enough political support to put new policies in place. He argues for the development of a public rhetoric that emphasizes common interests. Thus he describes the difficulties that ghetto residents have getting jobs as an extension, in a more serious form, of a declining trend in relative wages and employment for low-skilled workers in the labor market as a whole. He emphasizes the common interests that cities and suburbs share. While he stresses the especially severe difficulties experienced by blacks, he also points to the vulnerability of other minorities. Though he sees racial-preference policies as benefitting mainly those who are somewhat better off, with limited potential for helping people with weak links to the world of work, he does not abandon race-based policies; instead, he wants to extend them with race-neutral policies based on need. He also wishes to extend eligibility for new programs to more groups than just the poor. In his words, we must "appreciate that the poor and the working classes of all racial groups struggle to make ends meet, and even the middle class has experienced a decline in its living standard."