Down the Up Escalator, Barbara Garson
Down the Up Escalator, Barbara Garson
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Down the Up Escalator
How the 99 Percent Live in the Great Recession

Author: Barbara Garson

Narrator: Jeanine Kane

Unabridged: 8 hr 8 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 04/02/2013

Synopsis

One of our most incisive and committed journalists—author of the classic All the Livelong Day—shows us the real human cost of our economic follies.The Great Recession has thrown huge economic chal┬¡lenges at almost all Americans save the superaffluent few, and we are only now beginning to reckon up the human toll it is taking. Down the Up Escalator is an urgent dispatch from the front lines of our vast collective struggle to keep our heads above water and maybe even—someday—get ahead. Garson has interviewed an economically and geographically wide variety of Americans to show the pain┬¡ful waste in all this loss and insecurity, and describe how individuals are coping. Her broader historical focus, though, is on the causes and consequences of the long stag┬¡nation of wages and how it has resulted in an increasingly desperate reliance on credit and a series of ever-larger bubbles—stocks, technology, real estate. This is no way to run an economy, or a democracy.From the members of the Pink Slip Club in New York, to a California home health-care aide on the eve of eviction, to a subprime mortgage broker who still thinks it could have worked, Down the Up Escalator presents a sobering picture of what happens to a society when it becomes economically organized to benefit only the very rich and the quick-buck speculators. But it also demonstrates the wit and resilience of ordinary Americans—and why they deserve so much bet┬¡ter than the hand they've been dealt.

About Barbara Garson

Barbara Garson is an award-winning playwright, journalist, and the author of four books. Her play MacBird was the literary opening shot of the sixties, and The Dinosaur Door won an Obie. Her writing has appeared in Harper’s, the New York Times, Newsweek, and the Nation.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Desiree on January 10, 2014

An honest look at our current economy through the eyes of those who have been hurt by the recession. I found parts of it difficult to read, especially the stories about people who lost their homes through no fault of their own. She does an excellent job interviewing people from all over the United S......more

Goodreads review by Carly on January 19, 2013

Well written account of the effects of the Great Recession on average middle class Americans. Garson looks at people who have lost jobs, lost homes, and lost investment income. Written in the first person (and with some personal information) this is a clear account that shows the human cost behind t......more

Goodreads review by Hussam on November 30, 2018

The importance of the book lies in knowing how Americans were coping with the Recession that hit in 2008. The cause might have started in the 1970s for many reaons: 1. Wages did not rise with productivity "Between 1971 and 2007, U.S. productivity increased by 99 percent … Over the same years hourly wag......more

Goodreads review by Caren on April 13, 2013

This is an up-close-and-personal look at how the recent economic hard times have affected ordinary Americans. The author has done a wonderful job of introducing us to real people and their stories. She has changed their names, but assures us these people are not composite characters, but real people......more

Goodreads review by Ginny on June 19, 2015

This is one of the first books I've read by a journalist. I am trying to explore genres I haven't previously tried out and I found myself pretty engaged to the characters presented and the voice of the author. I thought Barbara had a great way of humanizing her subjects even though she was using fak......more

Quotes

“A lively read…[Garson’s] lucid book makes it clear that with each new crisis the American people will survive by digging deeper into their supplies of creativity, courage, and humor.” Hector Tobar, Los Angeles Times bestselling author

“Garson’s vivid, shrewd, warmly sympathetic profiles show the resilience with which ordinary Americans respond to misfortune, but also the enduring costs as they abandon hopes for a fulfilling career, an extra child, or a secure retirement. The result is a compelling portrait of an economy that has turned against the people.” Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“Barbara Garson has written a small masterpiece of wise and alarming reportage about how ordinary Americans are surviving during extraordinarily rotten times. Down the Up Escalator is a necessary antidote to all the blather about ‘freeing’ banks and investment houses from ‘crippling regulations.’” Michael Kazin, author of American Dreamers: How the Left Changed a Nation

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