Discuss the following passage: "And that is how we should see the poverty of so many millions of low-wage Americans--as a state of emergency."

This is Ehrenreich's call to arms. "Wake up!" she is crying. An essay on the passage would first identify it as a summation of Ehrenreich's position and a culmination of her investigation, then perhaps analyze the use of the word "emergency". It is a significant word-choice, in that Ehrenreich is describing a long-standing problem, not a momentary crisis; the implication is that we've been living with (and people have been dying because of) this emergency for generations.