The Working Poor Chapter one summary

           The first chapter of The Working Poor, immediately starts with the discussion of one of the most well known anti poverty programs, The Earned Income Tax Credit which helps many low waged workers pay overdue bills and sometimes even pay towards education, a car or a new home. A lot of these low wage workers then have to pay someone too do their taxes and all the paperwork correctly, because of they themselves don't know how to do the math for it and don't want to do it wrong, because doing it wrong could cost them even more money. This is just one of the situations for a low wage poor worker that the author uses as an example of how easy it is to get stuck in poverty even through a program that is supposed to do the opposite. Also in this chapter it is discussed how poverty attracts the attention of all sorts of predators who will tricks those already in poverty out of their money. Con artists, load sharks and even well known banks take advantage of someones needs for quicker cash and in turn end up causing that person to lose so much more. This chapter goes into detail with lot of good details of how someone already in poverty gets stuck, or even how someone in the middle class or even well off can also.