Off the Books

Working "off the books" providing services in exchange for untaxed or in-kind wages is an everyday affair throughout the United States. In cities and suburbs, both rich and poor, the "underground economy" thrives. However, as Sudhir Venkatesh demonstrates in Off the Books: The Underground Economy of the Urban Poor, what separates most U.S. communities from "Maquis Park" (a chosen pseudonym), a 10-block neighborhood on Chicago's south side, is the diversity and pervasiveness of underground economic transactions. Venkatesh draws on ethnographic data to document the daily business of mothers, shopkeepers, street hustlers, ministers, and gang members who trade car repairs, nighttime security, sexual acts, home-cooked meals, and drugs in a complex web of informal exchange. Off the Books richly describes the scope of Maquis Park's underground economy, which Venkatesh defines as "a widespread set of activities, usually scattered and not well integrated, through which people earn money that is not reported to the government and that, in some cases, may entail criminal behavior" (2006:8). His chapters detail women who babysit, clean homes, cook meals, and trade sex in order to generate income and create stability in their homes; entrepreneurs who employ off-the-books laborers or who themselves work in fluid, underground businesses; street hustlers who earn a living by providing goods and services on the street, pickpocketing, or offering security for local storeowners; local pastors who take money from the local gang and act as brokers for women looking for employment outside Maquis Park in order to make ends meet at their churches; and gang leaders who use force to excise taxes on other players in the underground economy. By the end of the book, the reader has an understanding of just how interconnected