Bait and Switch, the book

Barbara Ehrenrich has written Bait and Switch a story of middle class professional woe as they have been downsized by corporate America. There is a huge middle class of college educated folks who think that America owes them a living as middle managers. When corporations turned lean and mean and started outsourcing middle class jobs, white collar workers started hurting. Ehrenreich writes their story pretending to be a displaced professional in public relations she tries to find a job to no avail in spite of all the job fairs, support groups, job coaching, fashion make-overs she participates in.

Ehrenreich's book is more a description of her role play rather than an insightful look at the economic and social forces that have brought about this state of affairs. It is difficult for the people caught up in this economic change who have to find "real jobs" in the service industry for minimum wage instead of corporate jobs like "public relations".

I found it rather depressing. It is a story about people who believed in an illusion and when the bubble broke struggled to continue their fantasy only to learn that reality is putting a roof over one's head and food on the table not pretending that one's "career", largely artificially created by corporations, is substantial when it can be so easily eliminated.

I am reminded of the movie The Graduate when the Dustin Hoffman character is told conspiratorially by someone supposedly in the know to get into "plastics".

Back in the 70s "plastics" was where it was at. In the 2,000s it is fancy financial derivatives. It is a house of cards and when it implodes, people have to start building a whole new way of life.