The Big Squeeze: Tough Times for the American Worker (Borzoi Books)
by Steven Greenhouse
List Price:
Our Price: $15.44
You Save: $10.51 (41%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions
Book Summary Information
Author: Steven GreenhouseEdition: Hardcover
Published: 2008-04-15
ISBN: 1400044898
Number of pages: 384
Publisher: Knopf
Book Reviews of The Big Squeeze: Tough Times for the American Worker (Borzoi Books)
Book Review: The future looks mighty grim for the beleagured American worker.
Summary: 4 Stars
I imagine that many conservative talk show hosts who have heard of or even read "The Big Squeeze" will dismiss out of hand Steven Greenhouse's new book as just more predictable liberal negativity. After all, according to Sean Hannity on one recent afternoon program it is possible for everyone to become rich in America if they are just willing to work hard enough. This is hogwash, Mr. Hannity. Everyone is not cut out to be an enterpreneur or a stockbroker. The reality is that in America today 10% of the population controls nearly 50% of the wealth. The gap between the richest Americans and the rest of us has been increasing at a alarming rate. Good paying jobs are being shipped to other nations and millions of Americans employed in retail or service industries are being forced to work in miserable conditions just to scrape by. "The Big Squeeze" is about the sobering new realities facing an ever increasing number of American workers today. And for the most part what Steven Greenhouse has discovered is not a pretty picture.
It would appear that the American worker is under attack from all directions. Over the past two decades the U.S. has been inundated by millions of illegal aliens from places like Mexico, Guatemala and Haiti. The presence of these additional workers helps to depress blue collar wages in this country and places a strain on the public services we all have to pay for like schools and hospitals. Meanwhile, despite that fact that Americans are among the most productive workers in the world U.S. corporations have accelerated the outsourcing of good paying white collar jobs to places like Pakistan and India where workers are happy to work for a fraction of what his American counterpart makes. Greenhouse spotlights a number of instances where American workers were actually forced to suffer the indignity of training their foreign replacements or else risk losing their severance packages. This one hits especially close to home because my wife found herself in just this situation a few years ago.
As the grip of "The Big Squeeze" gets tighter and tighter, increasing numbers of Americans are forced to accept lower paying positions at outfits like Wal-Mart and Family Dollar. Steven Greenhouse hightlights a whole host of appalling working conditions too numerous to mention here that employees at these retailers are forced to endure. To me the most disturbing one was that in many smaller stores Wal-Mart employees working the overnight shift were actually locked in the store with no manager present and with absolutely no ability to get out in case of an emergency! How can they get away with that?? In the course of "The Big Squeeze" Greenhouse does give kudos to both the discount retailer Costco and the accounting firm Ernst and Young. He praises these companies for the value they place on their employees and cites them as models for other companies to follow. Greenhouse also believes that if the challenges facing American workers today are ever to be reversed then labor unions must play a major role, particularly with those doing lower-paying jobs like janitors and nursing home workers.
For most Americans, what Steven Greenhouse has to say in "The Big Squeeze" will really come as no surprise. The problems outlined in this book are myriad and the implications for most workers are quite frightening. Steven Greenhouse argues that America should take a second look at globalization and perhaps make some adjustments along the way. "The Big Squeeze" is a highly readable and informative book. Recommended!
Business & Investing Books
Book Subjects
- Arts & Photography
- Audiobooks on Cassette
- Audiobooks on CD
- Biographies & Memoirs
- Business & Investing
- Children's Books
- Comics & Graphic Novels
- Computers & Internet
- Cooking, Food & Wine
- e-Books
- Engineering
- Entertainment
- Gay & Lesbian
- Health, Mind & Body
- History
- Home & Garden
- Horror
- Law
- Literature & Fiction
- Medicine
- Mystery & Thrillers
- Nonfiction
- Outdoors & Nature
- Parenting & Families
- Professional & Technical
- Reference
- Religion & Spirituality
- Romance
- Science
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Sports
- Teens
- Travel
Most talked about in Great Books on American Capitalism, Economics, and History
The Last Lectureby Randy Pausch, Jeffrey Zaslow
Hyperion; Published: 2008-04-08; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $9.95
Price in other shops:
![Freakonomics [Revised and Expanded]: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything Image](/images/Freakonomics-Revised-and-Expanded-A-Rogue-Economist-Explores-the-Hidden-Side-of-Everything-0061234001-X.jpg)
Freakonomics [Revised and Expanded]: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everythingby Steven D. Levitt, Stephen J. Dubner
William Morrow; Published: 2006-10-02; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $14.75
Price in other shops:
The Prize : The Epic Quest for Oil, Money & Powerby Daniel Yergin
Free Press; Published: 1993-01-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $12.50
Price in other shops:
The Wealth and Poverty of Nations: Why Some Are So Rich and Some So Poorby David S. Landes
W. W. Norton & Company; Published: 1999-05-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $9.60
Price in other shops:
![The Worldly Philosophers: The Lives, Times And Ideas Of The Great Economic Thinkers [7th Edition] Image](/images/The-Worldly-Philosophers-The-Lives-Times-And-Ideas-Of-The-Great-Economic-Thinkers-7th-Edition-068486214X-X.jpg){kind=small}
The Worldly Philosophers: The Lives, Times And Ideas Of The Great Economic Thinkers [7th Edition]by Robert L. Heilbroner
Touchstone; Published: 1999-08-10; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.92
Price in other shops:
Buffett: The Making of an American Capitalistby Roger Lowenstein
Main Street Books; Published: 1996-08-18; Paperback; Book
Best price: $11.79
Price in other shops:
The Big Squeeze: Tough Times for the American Worker (Borzoi Books)by Steven Greenhouse
Knopf; Published: 2008-04-15; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $14.55
Price in other shops:
The Age of Turbulence: Adventures in a New Worldby Alan Greenspan
Penguin Press HC, The; Published: 2007-09-17; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $13.60
Price in other shops:
The Reagan Diariesby Ronald Reagan
HarperCollins; Published: 2007-06-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $7.45
Price in other shops:
Liar's Poker: Rising Through the Wreckage on Wall Streetby Michael Lewis
Penguin (Non-Classics); Published: 1990-10-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.43
Price in other shops:
Similar books summaries and other product reviews
The Three Trillion Dollar War: The True Cost of the Iraq Conflictby Joseph E. Stiglitz, Linda J. Bilmes
W. W. Norton; Published: 2008-03-03; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $10.94
Price in other shops:
Nixonland: The Rise of a President and the Fracturing of Americaby Rick Perlstein
Scribner; Published: 2008-05-13; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $20.25
Price in other shops:
The Age of American Unreasonby Susan Jacoby
Pantheon; Published: 2008-02-12; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $14.98
Price in other shops:
The Trillion Dollar Meltdown: Easy Money, High Rollers, and the Great Credit Crashby Charles R. Morris
PublicAffairs; Published: 2008-03-03; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $13.25
Price in other shops:
Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisionsby Dan Ariely
HarperCollins; Published: 2008-02-19; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $14.79
Price in other shops:
Free Lunch: How the Wealthiest Americans Enrich Themselves at Government Expense (and Stick You with the Bill)by David Cay Johnston
Portfolio Hardcover; Published: 2007-12-27; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $12.48
Price in other shops:
The Post-American Worldby Fareed Zakaria
W. W. Norton; Published: 2008-05-05; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $14.98
Price in other shops:
High Wire: The Precarious Financial Lives of American Familiesby Peter Gosselin
Basic Books; Published: 2008-06-02; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $14.49
Price in other shops:
Crunch: Why Do I Feel So Squeezed? (And Other Unsolved Economic Mysteries)by Jared Bernstein
Berrett-Koehler Publishers; Published: 2008-04-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $16.24
Price in other shops:
Bad Money: Reckless Finance, Failed Politics, and the Global Crisis of American Capitalismby Kevin Phillips
Viking Adult; Published: 2008-04-15; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $9.14
Price in other shops: