The Working Poor

The presentation will look at the working poor in the United States and the extent to which they go unnoticed in modern socity. First of all I would like you to take 5 minutes to watch this video
http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/video/2008/jan/23/america.poverty detailing the plight of those in America who barely scrape by whilst working menial jobs, or in some cases, unable to work due to injury; but do not have sufficient, if any, medical insurance. This gives a first-hand account of how difficult life can be on the breadline.

I will be discussing some issues raised by Barbara Ehrenreich in Nickel and Dimed regarding her experiences of trying to scrape by in low-wage America and the ways in which low-wage Americans are often trapped by the glass ceiling due to a lack of Education.

I will also discuss the extent to which poverty goes unnoticed in the USA, and look at some traditional attitudes towards poverty in order to create a framework for which to answer the question as to whether Americans beleive that poverty is the fault of the individual or of the society in which they exist