Reading Guide for

When Work Disappears

1. What is the main argument in this book?

2. How does middle class exodus from the inner city and joblessness within the inner city affect the social organization of those that remain?

3. How does deindustrialization affect the job prospects for inner city minorities? Who among the inner city minorities are the most impacted?

4. What role does access to public transportation play in the fates of inner city minorities?

5. Why is it particularly difficult for ghetto parents to control the behavior of their children relative to other groups?

6. How does ghetto life impact on the "self-efficacy" of those that reside there?

7. Why, according to Wilson, are rates of marriage and two-parent families so low in the inner city? What effect do such low rates of marriage have on the people that live in the inner city?

8. How do racial stereotypes affect the job prospects of ghetto residents? Do black employers feel differently than white employers?

9. What is statistical discrimination?

10. Why, according to Wilson, are most Americans so adverse to welfare programs?

11. What recommendations does Wilson offer with regards to Welfare Reform?

12. How does Wilson's research rebut the notion that welfare recipients don't share mainstream American values?