Cut Loose: Jobless and Hopeless in an Unfair Economy [Paperback]

Years after the Great Recession, the economy is still weak, and an unprecedented number of workers have sunk into long spells of unemployment.Cut Looseprovides 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-educatedor 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 Looseoffers a poignant look at how the long-term unemployed struggle in todays 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 actiona blueprint for a new kind of politics, one that offers a measure of grace in a society of ruthless advancement.

Victor Tan Chenis Assistant Professor of Sociology at Virginia Commonwealth University and the founding editor ofIn the Fraymagazine. He is the coauthor, with Katherine S. Newman, ofThe Missing Class: Portraits of the Near Poor in America.

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Cut Looseis the most powerful and poignant study of the effects of prolonged joblessness in todays economy that I have read. Chen uses his skills as an interviewer to elicit moving responses from laid-off autoworkers on the impact of long unemployment spells on their finances, family life, and physical and mental health. Readers of this blockbuster book will understand why the changing economy, with its increasing inequality, puts families who once had well-paid jobs on the assembly line at risk. Chens illulĂ*