Cut Loose

Jobless and Hopeless in an Unfair Economy

Victor Tan Chen

• Publisher: University of California Press
• Year: 2015
• Print ISBN: 9780520283015
• eBook ISBN: 9780520958852
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Labour Economics
• Index: Social Sciences

Years after the Great Recession, the economy is still weak, and an unprecedented number of workers have sunk into long spells of unemployment. Cut Loose provides a vivid and moving account of the experiences of some of these men and women, through the example of a historically important group: autoworkers. Their well-paid jobs on the assembly lines built a strong middle class in the decades after World War II. But today, they find themselves beleaguered in a changed economy of greater inequality and risk, one that favors the well-educated—or well-connected.

Their declining fortunes in recent decades tell us something about what the white-collar workforce should expect to see in the years ahead, as job-killing technologies and the shipping of work overseas take away even more good jobs.  Cut Loose offers a poignant look at how the long-term unemployed struggle in today's unfair economy to support their families, rebuild their lives, and overcome the shame and self-blame they deal with on a daily basis. It is also a call to action—a blueprint for a new kind of politics, one that offers a measure of grace in a society of ruthless advancement.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Cut Loose
• Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• 1. They Had It Coming
• 2. All This Garbage from Life: Education and the Capital Speedup
• 3. Decline and Fall: Hardship, Race, and the Social Safety Net
• 4. Half a Man: Fragile Families and the Unmarriageable Unemployed
• 5. Vicious Circles: The Structure of Power and the Culture of Judgment
• 6. Loser: The Failures of the American Dream
• 7. There Go I
• Appendix: Research Methods and Policy Details
• Notes
• Index