Barbara Ehrenreich: The Disposable American – Talking with Louis Uchitelle

When I was offered a month-long gig writing columns for the New York Times in 2004, the newspaper brought me up to New York to meet the editors and publisher. “Is there any particular reporter you’d like to meet?” they asked me. It didn’t take a nanosecond to respond – yes, Louis Uchitelle! I’d admired his economics reporting for years and wanted to ask him some questions related to the research I was then doing for Bait and Switch. Lucky for me, he was available and willing to have coffee with me in the company cafeteria.

As I burbled on about my life as an undercover job-seeker, a curious gleam came into his eyes. Turns out, he was working on a book about layoffs himself. We eagerly exchanged observations, and about a year later he sent me the manuscript for his book The Disposable American: Layoffs and Their Consequences. I was tremendously excited by it: a tour de force of reporting, analysis, and – best of all—suggested solutions.