I think for some, and they didn't say this, but my guess is just from reading them, it was kind of an unusual experience to have some stranger come into their homes and sit at their kitchen tables and ask them about themselves.

Some people were very open and very warm and very receptive to my pestering them all the time again and again and again.

I spend time listening to people, and people's favorite subject is themselves, as all reporters know. I keep thinking actually about what my mother once said to me– that she'd raised me to be comfortable in an embassy - in a hut. So she never got the kind of job that would allow her to move up.

And I always had the sense, I'm sure no employer would admit this directly, but that without that thousand-watt smile that Americans prize so dearly, she was not allowed to work in ongoing contact with the public. She had to get them all pulled out to get Medicaid to pay for a set of dentures. She had a problem with her teeth because she didn't have enough money to go to the dentist, and this is a chronic problem among many poor working families. She's always been stuck in jobs of ten dollars an hour or less, and mostly less. She's never been able to get a job that makes use of that degree. gone to the trouble of getting herself a college degree, a two-year degree and she'd gone into debt to do it. Caroline Paine, up in New Hampshire, had gotten. I was quite struck by the power of the persistence of many people I met who had been in stagnant jobs for a long time or they had moved from one job to another, but they never seemed to give up. I'm going to buy some furniture.' It's a couple of thousand bucks maybe around tax time. 'When I get my taxes, I'm going to catch up on my bills. If you go to a poor neighborhood, you'll hear people talk about 'when I get my taxes.' I mean taxes aren't… you know, doesn't mean a check they write it means money they receive. This time of year people are pretty much done filing their tax returns when they're low- income workers. It actually can provide… it's almost like a negative income tax, not quite, but it can provide funds for people when they file their tax returns. One of them is the Earned Income Tax Credit. In addition, as you point out, there are government programs that in effect subsidize the low wages. We can afford a lot of things that we could probably not afford if people were paid a living wage, a much higher wage. There are, of course… folks who are in this position make the living standards for the more affluent Americans rather high.

The working poor invisible in america