Article 2 - REVIEW OF “BAIT AND SWITCH” June 2006 edition of First Church of The Streets

    Certainly anyone who has watched Lou Dobbs is aware of the fact that the middle class has been under attack. With layoffs, cutbacks, and the end of health benefits, etc., the middle class lifestyle is just not what it used to be. In Bait and Switch, the new book by Barbara Ehrenreich, the author goes undercover to discover for herself what the quagmire of the white collar lifestyle is all about.

    To undertake this adventure, she decides that she will allow several months to get a job in the corporate world. The plan is to see what it is like to work in the cutthroat lifestyle of the business world, and to discover what the glass ceilings and ivory towers are all about. What she finds out is much different than she ever thought she would.

    This is not the first time the author has taken and undercover adventure. In one of her previous books, Nickle and Dimed, the author examined the so-called "pink-collared" world, taking jobs in Wal-Mart and with a cleaning service. This time around, she plans to expound upon her real life experience from the academic and publishing worlds, marketing herself as a public relations specialist.

    Ehrenreich's book is a fairly entertaining account of what a laid-off white collared employee might experience in the world of the chronically unemployed. It also busts through the stereotype that people who are unemployed for years are just "lazy bums" who aren't willing to work. It also calls into question the oft-repeated political lingo, "jobs Americans aren't doing", through various examples of American workers who may very well be happy to take "jobs Americans aren't doing" if no other opportunity presents itself.

    Of course, throughout the book, the fact that the author is playacting and knows that she can go back to her freelancing job at any moment is factored in, something that the author herself alludes to. The real desperation that a person who is laid off is not quite expressed because of this fact. This being true, it is possible that the experiences that Ehrenreich undergoes may not be absolutely typical of the dismal underbelly of the chronically underemployed or unemployed, the Internet resume postings, job fairs, coaching, and network affairs.

    But despite being aware of her "way out" of this underground maze, Ehrenreich feels the stinging rejection of being overlooked and undervalued. In her experiences, she sees the shadowy world that exists but no one wants to acknowledge in a "booming economy". In her many conversations and interactions she has with her fellow unemployed, the author shows how the American dream was yanked from those who did "everything right", such as college and hard work, playing by the rules.

    For them, the American dream is nothing more than a "bait and switch" that blames them for their predicament, but still leaves them in a lurch, forgetting them while painting a veneer of optimism over them, so they cease to even exist.