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BOOK
Bad Neighbor Policy: Washington's Futile War on Drugs in Latin America
Ted Galen Carpenter
$19.46

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The domestic phase of Washington's war on drugs has received considerable criticism over the years from a variety of individuals. Until recently, however, most critics have not stressed the damage that the international phase of the drug war has done to our Latin American neighbors. That lack of attention has begun to change and Ted Carpenter chronicles our disenchantment with the hemispheric drug war. Some prominent Latin American political leaders have finally dared to criticize Washington while at the same time, the U.S. government seems determined to perpetuate, if not intensify, the antidrug crusade. Spending on federal antidrug measures also continues to increase, and the tactics employed by drug war bureaucracy, both here and abroad, bring the inflammatory "drug war" metaphor closer to reality. Ending the prohibitionist system would produce numerous benefits for both Latin American societies and the United States. In a book deriving from his work at the CATO Institute, Ted Carpenter paints a picture of this ongoing fiasco.

BOOK
A Futile and Stupid Gesture: How Doug Kenney and <I>National Lampoon</I> Changed Comedy Forever
Josh Karp
$10.42

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BOOK
Bait and Switch: The (Futile) Pursuit of the American Dream
Barbara Ehrenreich
$0.04

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Questions for Barbara Ehrenreich

Through over three decades of journalism and activism and over a dozen books, Barbara Ehrenreich has been one of the most consistent and imaginative chroniclers of class in America, but it was her bestselling 2001 book, Nickel and Dimed, a undercover expose of the day-to-day struggles of the working poor, that has been the most influential work of her career. Now, with Bait and Switch, she has gone undercover again, this time as a middle-aged professional trying to get a white-collar job in corporate America. We asked her a few questions about what she found:

Amazon.com: Your previous book, Nickel and Dimed, became a blockbuster bestseller with a classic "there but for the grace of God go I" liberal message just when the general political mood of the country seemed to be going in a very different direction. Why do you think it struck such a chord? What sorts of reactions have you gotten to it over the past four years?

Barbara Ehrenreich: A lot of Nickel and Dimed readers are people who regularly inhabit the low-wage work world, and many of them write to tell me that the book affirmed their experience and made them feel less alone and ignored. Other readers though, are affluent people who write to say I opened their eyes to a world they'd been unaware of. For those people, I think one appealing feature of Nickel and Dimed is that it's a personal narrative that gives them a look at lives lived at the margins of their own. The most gratifying response has been from people who tell me the book inspired them to become activists for things like a living wage or affordable housing.

Amazon.com: At what point did you realize that your new book, Bait and Switch, in which you went undercover again, this time to tell a story of working in corporate America, was instead becoming one of not working in corporate America? Is that the story you expected to tell?

Ehrenreich: My initial aim was not "to tell a story of working in corporate America" but to try to understand the human underside of corporate America--the job insecurity, the constant layoffs and downsizings that now occur even in the best of times. I expected to get a job and hence an inside view, but I always knew that that would be very difficult. After about 4-5 months of job searching, I began to get seriously discouraged, but I also came to understand that a fruitless search is in fact a very common experience. After all, today 44 percent of the long-term unemployed are white collar folks--an unusually high percentage. It's their world I entered, and their story that I tell in Bait and Switch.

Amazon.com: For someone with a white-collar career, you didn't have much experience in corporate culture before you attempted to join it for this book. What surprised you the most about what you found?

Ehrenreich: What surprised me most, right from day one of my job search, was the surreal nature of the job searching business. For example, everyone, from corporations to career coaches, relies heavily on "personality tests" which have no scientific credibility or predictive value. One test revealed that I have a melancholy and envious nature and, for some reason, was unsuited to be a writer! And what does "personality" have to do with getting the job done, anyway? There's far less emphasis on skills and experience than on whether you have the prescribed upbeat and likeable persona. I kept wondering: Is this any way to run a business? I was also surprised--and disgusted--by the constant victim-blaming you encounter among coaches, at networking events for the unemployed, and in the business advice books. You're constantly told that whatever happens to you is the result of your attitude or even your "thought forms"--not a word about the corporate policies that lead to so much turmoil and misery.

Amazon.com: You seemed to make much closer ties with your fellow workers in Nickel and Dimed than you did on the white-collar job hunt. What was different this time?

Ehrenreich: You're right--there is a difference. But it's not so much a matter of personalities as it is about two different worlds. There's a lot of camaraderie in the blue-collar world I entered in Nickel and Dimed. People help each other and look out for each other; they laugh together--often at the managers. The white-collar world doesn't encourage camaraderie, far from it. There it's all about competition and fear--of losing one's job, for one thing. Other people are seen as sources of contacts or tips, at best; as competitors or rivals, at worst. And among the unemployed add shame and a sense of personal failure, the constant message that it's all your own fault. All this discourages any solidarity with others or real openness.

Amazon.com: God forbid anyone would come to your book as a guide for finding a white-collar job, but what advice would you give to someone in the shoes you put yourself in: a middle-aged professional woman, in fear of falling irrevocably out of touch with the world of the regularly employed?

Ehrenreich: You don't think I'd make a good career coach? OK, but I have three pieces of advice for the middle-aged, middle-class job seeker anyway:

One, be very careful how you spend your money and time. Since the mid-90s, a whole industry has sprung up to help--or, depending on your point of view, prey upon--white-collar job seekers. The "professionals" in this business are usually entirely unlicensed and unregulated. Also, watch out for events billed as "networking" opportunities that really have another agenda--like recruiting you into expensive coaching or proselytizing you into a particular religion.

Two, don't count on the internet job sites to find you a job or even an interview. On any of these sites, your resume will be competing with hundreds of thousands of others, and most large companies today don't even bother reading online resumes; they have computer programs scan them for keywords (and you won't know what those keywords are.)

Three, and most important: stop believing that it's your own fault. That's the first step to recognizing the common problems facing white-collar workers and responding to them. I'd be thrilled if this book, like Nickel and Dimed, also inspires readers to get involved and become active in efforts to make life a little easier for the growing numbers of people who are unemployed, underemployed, or anxiously employed. What could they do? Lobby for universal health insurance that's not tied to a job, for example. Fight for extended unemployment benefits. Raise their voices to complain about corporate tax breaks and subsidies that are justified in terms of "job creation" but often go to companies that are busy laying people off. One major reason job loss is so catastrophic is that we just don't have much of a safety net in this country. That has to change, and who's going to make it change, if not people like those I met in Bait and Switch? I've got a new website, barbaraehrenreich.com, and I'd like to hear from readers--both their stories and their ideas for how to take action.

Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America

Fear of Falling: The Inner Life of the Middle Class

Blood Rites: Origins and History of the Passions of War

BOOK
Bait And Switch: The (Futile) Pursuit of the American Dream
Barbara Ehrenreich
$4.87

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I understand what Ehrenreich was trying to do. This book was highly recommended by an adult collage student friend. She like it and was very impressed by the entire concept.
I however work in the professional healthcare/retail industry. I found her attempts to understand the professional industry weak and very much like too many others who want in without working their way up, or going to school for the baseline knowledge.
My friend said that I missed the point, but I feel as if the author mimicked a half a dozen or so applicants I interviewed this last month; trained to use buzz words, but have no real knowledge of the job.
She does a rather remarkable job in pointing out that one needs far more than a "people personality" to go far in a professional world, and spending a grand or more in coaching is not a golden ticket.
Overall, light and semi entertaining reading, not really the moral outrage of the common people being barred from elite jobs as it was introduced to me.
Nickel and Dimed is by far the better of Ehrenreich's work.

BOOK
The Futile Crusade
Sidney Lens
$1.95

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BOOK
Futile Efforts
Alexander Michael
$10.65

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A young boy, his mother and sister are abandoned in a dilapidated house while his brutal father makes a career out of prostituting women. In order to help his mentally disturbed mother and abused sister escape the impoverished conditions under which they live, the boy undertakes extraordinary measures to better himself. He transforms his frail body into a form more suited for the cruel and violent world that was first introduced to him by his father. He also sets out to overcome the learning disability that stands between him and the college education he needs to help his family. It is not, however, until after the unrelated murders of the boy¡¯s brother and best friend that the story takes its darkest turn.

Futile Efforts provides a compelling story of psychological intrigue as it depicts the evolution of a scared, frail boy into something that is more frightening than his worst nightmare. What sets Futile Efforts apart from its genre is not the terible misfortunes described in the story but the responses to those misfortunes. Futile Efforts is made even more compelling by the fact that it is based entirely on a true story.

BOOK
Resistance is Futile
John Gallas
$9.43

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This collection opens in Mongolia with a poem called "Yoghurt". It is spring in Ulan Bator and Hoo Gerjan is seeking legal advice. This is the first of 12 narratives in the book interspersed with lyric moments such as one involving Samuel Beckett's telephone, a narrative ending with two blue dogs, "The Ballad of Robin Hood and the Deer", and a metaphysical narrative bringing a Christmas message from the Vatican.

BOOK
Futile Medicine: A Nurse Reveals what your Doctor has not told you or will not tell you about Today's Health Care Issues
Marie Frances RN
$6.98

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BOOK
The Futile Life of Pito Perez
Jose Ruben Romero
$30.00

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BOOK
Bad Neighbor Policy: Washington's Futile War on Drugs in Latin America.(Book Review): An article from: Independent Review
William Ratliff
$5.95

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This digital document is an article from Independent Review, published by Independent Institute on January 1, 2004. The length of the article is 1665 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Bad Neighbor Policy: Washington's Futile War on Drugs in Latin America.(Book Review)
Author: William Ratliff
Publication: Independent Review (Refereed)
Date: January 1, 2004
Publisher: Independent Institute
Volume: 8 Issue: 3 Page: 456(4)

Article Type: Book Review

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