Barbara Ehrenreich 's Nickel And Dimed

Stability. One of the major aspects that America’s economy lacks. It would be assumed that after sweat and tears from working a nine-hour job, six days a week, retirement would be a benefit that every senior could have. However, working your entire life on a minimum-wage job is a necessity for majority of Americans. Journalist, Barbara Ehrenreich published the book, Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting by in America, in 2001, where she wrote about an approximate two and a half year experiment she did regarding the struggles of those surviving off of minimum wage. As a result of her difficult journey, Ehrenreich realizes the difficulty of those working minimum wage and deduces, “So the problem goes beyond my personal failings and

Barbara Ehrenreich is a political/social journalist and writer. She is a best-selling author with a dozen book credits to her name. Her works include Blood Rites, The Worst Years of Our Lives, and Fear of Falling. She also has written articles for Time, Harpers, The New Republic, The Nation, and The New York Time Magazine. Her Ph.D. in biology endows her with the experience and discipline to approach as a scientific experiment the study resulting in her newest book, Nickel and Dimed.

In the book Nickel and Dimed On (not) Getting By in America the author Ehrenreich, goes under cover as a minimum wage worker. Ehrenreich’s primary reason for seriptiously getting low paying jobs is to see if she can “match income to expenses as the truly poor attempt to do everyday.”(Ehrenreich 6) Also Ehrenreich makes it extremely clear that her work was not designed to make her “experience poverty.”(6) After completing the assignment, given to her by an editor, she had planned to write an article about her experience. Her article purpose intended to reach the community that is financially well off and give them an idea how minimum wage workers deal with everyday life. It

Why should we be the ones to pay for someone to sit around at home? The answer is one simple word, welfare. There are many reasons why people mooch on welfare, rather than going out and working. The only jobs these people are qualified for are minimum wage jobs. As Barbara Ehrenreich, author of Nickel and Dimed, worked at minimum wage paying jobs and reported the hardships that people had to go through on a day-to-day basis. A critic responded by saying, “This is simply the case of an academic who is forced to get a real job…” Ehrenriech’s reasoning for joining the working-class is to report why people who mite be on welfare, continue to stay on welfare. Her reports show there are many hardships

Barbara Ehrenreich began her research to explore how people attempting to move from welfare to work are managing—if at all. This exploration also extended to those who are apart of the working class and having not been on welfare. Attempting to place herself in the position of her subjects, Ehrenreich strived to see if she were able to survive on the minimal income provided by a series of low level and low paying jobs. In was her foreknowledge of laws and the inclusion of these laws in Nickel and Dimed that brought about exposing historical and present-day 21st century contradictory practices, laws, and regulations that exploit the poor working class (if not through her experiment but by the subjects’ honest experience). In

Were your perceptions of the blue collar Americans transformed or reinforced by nickel and dimmed? Have your notions of poverty and prosperity changed since reading the book? What about your own treatments of waiters, maids, salespeople?

In ‘Nickel and Dimed” by Barbara Ehrenreich, the main claim made by the author was that the low-working class are, in general, forced into an inescapable cycle of poverty. The low paying jobs they have to take are barely enough to pay rent, buy food, and other necessities. This doesn’t even include those in less favorable conditions than those Ehrenreich mimicked in her experiment. In general, Ehrenreich was trying to prove that the “living wage” offered by entry level jobs is not, in fact, “livable”. The significant supporting evidence provided in the book included Ehrenreich’s first hand experiences of mimicking (to her best abilities) what low-wage workers live everyday, as well as a plethora of supporting facts and statistics. All of Ehrenreich’s evidence was heavily supported with reliable resources. Based on the facts she presented, I agree with her claim that the majority of low-wage workers get stuck in poverty as a result of the entry-level workforce system as a whole. The evidence regarding statistics was very valid and well cited, and her first-hand experiences, while with possible flaws, only worked to further support what she was claiming. Ehrenreich’s methodology of obtaining evidence was very direct, and proved to show a plausible experience that most of the low-class would have in a best-case scenario. By that I mean in some of the best circumstances (no children, no serious medical needs, ect.), it is reasonable to assume that Ehrenreich’s experiences are

In the novel Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich, the author goes on an experiment in which she moves to new towns and becomes a low-wage worker. In each town she has to find a place to live for the amount she can afford each month off of minimum wage jobs. She went undercover so she went into these jobs without showing her level of skills, college degrees, or writing skills she has. She spent a month in each town between the years of 1998 and 2000. Before starting her experiment she set rules for herself which were, “I had to take the highest-paying job that was offered me and do my best to hold it; I had to take the cheapest accommodations I could find, at least the cheapest that offered an acceptable level of safety and privacy”(Ehrenreich, Barbara (2010-04-01). Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America (p. 4). Henry Holt and Co.. Kindle Edition). When she went on interviews and filled out applications she didn’t put any job experience down and described herself as “a divorced homemaker reentering the workforce after many years”

In the novel Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehnreich, there are many hurtles she must overcome to experience the life of a low income worker. She sets some ground rules for herself, such as always having a car, and starting out with a certain amount of money for her down payment on an apartment. Although the rules are doable, she admits that she broke all of the rules at least once. Even though Barbara didn't hold to her original plan, she was still able to reveal her appeals clearly.

Throughout the book I learned that trying to live off minimum wage with average life is nearly impossible. It is impossible because the people work all day, they have no health care and they typing scavenge the food that is cheap. Listening sad I feel like life and the economy is unbalanced. ? I've learned that the author is very biased and to me it seems odd that she would change places with someone that makes a low minimum wage when she makes all the money that she needs to survive. So what would happen if you put a child in the mix with trying to live off minimum wage? Some things that I'm going to include in my research paper is the statistics that she states at the bottom of the pages. An example would be the quote “So begins my career at the Hearthside, where for two weeks I work from 2:00 till 10:00 p.m. for $2.43 an hour plus tips” The quote shows that Barbra cannot live off $2.43.Another is “…forced to live off the contents of his car and whatever food items he can scrummage

There are many families out there who are currently struggling to make ends meet. Regardless of their hard work and commitment, the economy will not take pity. I wish I could say that it was not always like this. Unfortunately, no real change has taken place within the past few years. It may not be as difficult as the time of the Great Depression, but who’s to say that we have recovered from it? My claim is supported by Barbara Ehrenreich, an American author, who published a novel called Nickel and Dimed which digs deep into the economic situation in the early 90’s. Ehrenreich decided to run an experiment becoming a blue collar worker to see if she can manage to make a living on low wages. She later blogs of Nickel and Dimed in 2011 to see

Nickel and Dimed, by Barbara Ehrenreich, is a book that can be appropriately described as a piece of investigative journalism. While eating an expensive lunch with the editor of Harper’s, Lewis Lapham, Ehrenreich’s sociological interest is piqued. She is perplexed at how low wage workers manage to pay their expenses with seemingly almost no financial resources. Because of the recent welfare reform at the time (2001), one of her main interests was how women that were used to receiving welfare would survive on $6- $7 an hour. Therefore, she decides to partake in an experiment. She creates a drastically lowered version of her identity, claiming she is a divorced homemaker reentering the workforce after several years. Her main goal is to see if

After reading Nickel and Dimed, I think that having any job is better than no job at all. I think that having a job shows that you are independent and that you don’t have to rely on others. There are some people out there who are far too lazy to find a job and would rather rely on their family for their income. This book made me feel more aware rather than angry. This book has taught me what the life of a typical low wage worker in America looks and feels like. While reading this book, I felt really bad for Ehrenreich because she had to undergo a lot of hardships all by herself and she usually had to worry about her budget. It made me think about how my life would be when I get older. It felt worried that I’ll struggle the same way Ehrenreich

In episode three Barbara Ehrenreich still performs an adequate portrayal of how the low wage worker lives. In this episode Ms. Ehrenreich faces her greatest challenge to finding living quarters out of all three episodes. All of the hotels are either full or too expensive for her to afford on minimum wage. As a result Ms. Ehrenreich first stays in a motel that is very shady and lacks almost all commodities that are considered a given in our society. These include A.C., a kitchen or appliances, and a screen on the window. As a result Ms. Ehrenreich is very anxious during her stay in this motel as even the door lacks a lock and anyone who wanted to could very easily get into her room. Ms. Ehrenreich gets a job at Walmart and soon learns how exhausting

In the article “Young, Assured, and Playing Pharmacist to Friends,” it describes different types of people in different situations from different places all participating in the new craze of self-medicating. All of the people described were young and confident in their ability to know what prescription pills were best suited for their problem at that time. These self-medicating young people trade pills in exchange for other pills, and often times take them without a doctor’s permission, and justified it with the use of the Internet. This pattern of pharmaceutical sharing reflects the larger medicalized culture of pursuing the better self by showing how and why the younger generation self medicates. In the article one woman even describes that she feels that she knows more about what she is talking about, pertaining to what prescription drugs she should take, than a doctor does.