Work and the Welfare Cadillac: The Function of and Commitment to Work among the Hard-Core Unemployed

Interviews were conducted with 275 chronically unemployed persons to ascertain the extent of their commitment to work and the functions it performed for them. It was found that work was viewed as the legitimate source of sustenance; their commitment to it was as strong as that of employed white-and blue-collar workers who had been investigated in other studies using the same methodological technique. While the economic function of work appeared to be paramount among them, there was a marked tendency to prize work for the social function that it provided by conferring respectability on the employed individual. Despite the extreme deprivation which characterized their lives, most accepted the dominant work ethic prevalent in this country and frequently evidenced negative attitudes toward recipients of public assistance and persons who did not want to work.