Book Review: The Disposable American

"The laid-off are cut loose from their moorings and rarely achieve in their next jobs a new and satisfactory sense of themselves," he writes in the book. "Layoffs damage companies by undermining the productivity of those who survive but feel vulnerable, as well as the productivity of those who are laid off and got jobs again."

While his first two points may ring true for most, the third is the one most likely to be dismissed as pap. Like it or not, there are plenty of people who don't care about the fact that laid-off workers may suffer from depression, are often forced to take a more menial or worse-paying job, or that private lives are damaged by the loss of a job and the esteem it confers.

And since this is the overarching theme of the book, The Disposable American may not prove ultimately convincing.

Uchitelle may be able to reach some doubters, because this book is not a treacly ode to "made in America" sentimentality. It's a straightforward, matter-of-fact and sincerely saddening elegy to the American worker.

His frustration during our interview can be felt throughout the book, because it is shared by all of the people he interviewed -- people from all walks of life who were axed in the name of cost cuts, and then unable to match their original positions in pay, prestige or challenge.

When asked what his solution would be, Uchitelle does not want another toothless bill or a Democrat-vs.-Republican fight for the hearts and minds of the people. It would be a start, he says in our interview, for the nation to acknowledge that "we've given up on trying to figure out what value job security still has."

"Just the effort to figure out [a new reason to] value job stability will bring us together," he says. "And then you have an entirely different debate."