Ehrenreich Embarks On A Difficult Journey

Ehrenreich’s housing situation also makes her stand out from the real poor working class. Ehrenreich (2002) states "As it turns out, the mere fact of having a unit to myself makes me an aristocrat..." (p. 70). Almost every other person she has met has to live with another person. A hefty security deposit is required to get an apartment which many people are unable to pay so they are forced to live with family, friends, or pay for a hotel room. Cohabiting is another system the working poor faces. Ehrenreich does not have to endure the hardship of living with another person.

To begin with, Ehrenreich’s method of research does take a lot of commitment and it is a difficult simulation to have to experience, however, there is an entire section of research she can not obtain from this method of research. Ehrenreich can not get an accurate representation of her co-worker’s past struggles and their current situations away from work. In her novel, Ehrenreich quotes, “...but it would take a long time, probably months before I could hope to be accepted into this sorority,” (Ehrenreich 395). The poor working class, at Jerry’s at least, is a closed off society. The workers only trust people that are in similar situations as them and do not openly share their

For this project, Ehrenreich had a car and use of emergency cash through her ATM card, but neither undermined her ability to take a critical look at poverty and the people who worked at minimum waged positions in this country. There were devised special rules for the experiment so that she could approach it as an unskilled worker, although she had a college degree and was a successful writer. None of Ehrenreich?s acquired skills could be used for job hunting. The majority of the time she adhered to the rules she set, and only deviated three times from the rules. The goal was to spend at least thirty days in each location to see if she could earn enough wages to pay the next month?s rent.

The situation Ehrenreich is describing is the reality of millions of Americans; they work multiple minimum wage jobs, and are paid “so meagerly that workers can’t save enough to move on.” In addition, Ehrenreich recalls the actions of the U.S. government in regards to assisting these Americans. The article opens with the contribution of President Lyndon B. Johnson on the “War on Poverty”, then the “attack on welfare” in the 90s, concluding with The Great Recession. While writing Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting by in America, Ehrenreich abandoned her comfortable life to live the life of a low-income American; she worked multiple entry level jobs including Wal-Mart, a maid service, and as a nursing home aide. Through these actions, Ehrenreich establishes her ethos. Because she’s lived the lifestyle she’s describing, she has the authority to speak on the topic. Ehrenreich concludes with her proposal to help the

Barbara Ehrenreich 's showed that she didn't have the mind set or worries of a working class person by reminding us as readers the fine line between the kind of performance she is doing and the kind her fellow coworkers do every day on the job. Time and again she lets us sink into her new world of a low-wage worker, only to pull us back with a reminder of the act. 1 She does this experiment to determine whether or not she could both live off the money earned and have enough money at the end of the month to pay the next month's rent. Working class people depend on the money they make on these jobs to survive and provide for their families. She could drop all these jobs she experimented with and go back to her real life without a worry in the

Ehrenreich goes into this experience knowing that she is above everyone and knowing she has money in her back pocket for any scenario where she is in need. Not even realizing that she was talking down on the working class, Ehrenreich refers to the working poor people's lives as ¨this parallel universe¨. As Ehrenreich gets into her first job working for minimum wage, she says ¨At least Gail puts to rest any fears I had of appearing overqualified.¨ Ruling out things was something that Ehrenreich did from the beginning. Choosing to rule out homelessness, she would never be without a car, and no shelters or sleeping in cars for her. Attitude played a big role in how she began her experience right from the start. The people who are actually living in poverty do not have any options to fall back on. Ehrenreich’s attitude is not of one who actually goes through the daily struggles to get by in this world. Being above everyone was something she made clear to all readers right in the beginning. On the other hand, Turkel’s attitude is very uplifting and appreciative of the working poor and how they have so much pride and passion in the work they do. While interviewing the working class, Turkel gets invited to eat dinner at some man's house, and without even realizing it, Turkel is leaving the dinner on short notice not fully appreciating that this stranger invited him into his home and used money he probably did not have to buy him Italian. Turkel says ¨I found myself neglecting the amenities and graces that offer mutual pleasure and host.¨ Realizing these people take huge pride in what they are doing, and love doing what they do, Turkel started to see how working like they do is actually

Through the struggles of stabilizing two jobs at once while searching for a temporary home, Ehrenreich displayed the frustration of sticking to her three guidelines in her experiment: she cannot go hungry, be homeless, or ignore the skills she learned through her education and past work experiences. She struggled to find jobs that provided more than minimum-wage incomes in

While out dining with a friend Barbara Ehrenreich, a bestselling author of many books had came up with a question which would mark the start of a whole new life experience. Her question was, “how does anyone live on the wages available to the unskilled?” The topic of poverty had greatly fascinated Ehrenreich but not to the point that she would actually want to experience poverty herself. However, this changed when the friend she was dining with suggested she should be the one to go out and experience the unpleasant lifestyle that is poverty. Upon starting this experiment she knew she had to construct a plan so she sat and began to plan out how she would be living throughout the experiment When concluding her experiment Ehrenreich argues

As the author moved from locale to locale she identified a variety of recurring hardships faced by the working poor. The chief concern for many was housing. Finding and maintaining economical housing was the principal source of disruption in their lives. For many of the working poor it’s not uncommon to spend more than 50% of income on housing. These leaves a scarce amount of money left over for anything else and creates a situation where the person is always worried about losing their shelter. In a nutshell, it’s Ehrenreich’s conviction that wages are too low and rents are too high. She does speak with many individuals who simply cannot afford the high rental rates and are forced to live with family, friends, or in some

Throughout the novel, Ehrenreich has a very reflective tone as she discusses the difficult tasks of the jobs she takes on. At the beginning of the novel, Ehrenreich believes that managing a lifestyle on low wage job was possible but quickly came to the realization that to make ends meet one must work multiple jobs. She as well believes that she may be too overqualified for these jobs but as well comes to the realization she is under-qualified as not only do these jobs prove to be physically but mentally tiring. Ehrenreich appeals to emotion to create sympathy for low-wage workers. An example of appeal to emotion would be where Marge states that the owners of homes they clean believe “They thinks we’re stupid”(100) and “ We’re nothing to these people”(100).

Throughout the book Ehrenreich’s co-workers all seem to struggle, such as the trouble with housing in Key West and healthcare in Maine. Having a place to live, eating properly, and healthcare seem to be the biggest cause of concern within the working class. Most of the jobs that she worked, the workers did not have healthcare packages or benefits. So it wasn’t uncommon for them to have trouble trying to manage their health and struggle to pay for medication, let alone a visit to the doctor. Without healthcare and a lack of proper diet (in Maine she had a ‘thirty minute’ lunch break but most of her co-workers barely ate anything close to a meal) it is not hard to see how the working class can easily be shot into poverty; seeing as most of the working class that she had encountered were just living above the poverty line. Reading about what she noticed and noted about her co-workers it isn’t hard to imagine how easy it would be to fall below the poverty

Ehrenreich also found the experience of the working poor abound with indignities, from monitored urination for drug testing to subjection to search. Ehrenreich notes the indignity, “I still flinch to think that I spent all those weeks under the surveillance of men (and later women) whose job it was to monitor my behavior for signs of sloth, theft, drug abuse or worse” (2001, p. 22). “According to Marx, the exploitation of workers by capitalists and the resulting alienation from work result in the denial of workers’ humanity” (Hodson & Sullivan, 2008, p. 8); once again, a description strikingly similar to Ehrenreich’s experiences and observations.

I have to agree with Ehrenreich that there is no job unskilled. Even jobs that require simple tasks still requires the employee attention and practice to master perfection. I thought Ehrenreich did well while working in low-wage jobs. She is a good observer. Looking for a shelter, safe place to sleep can be difficult especially for a woman. I think the way welfare works in this country is obsolete in somehow unfair. The poor is limited by politicians regulations. The government does not help. The government as is usual allures people. Ehrenreich project shows the welfare problem on her book. From her book, I assume how much taxes the rich, the poor are or aren’t paying. With Ehrenreich project, I learned how little I know about how the poor

In her personal essay “Serving in Florida,” Barbara Ehrenreich offers to show her experience as a middle class citizen living on a low income. Ehrenreich asserts that an average middle-class employee’s life is not like one would expect it to be, implying that it is just a mask. Many of such workers’ way of life is unpredictable, which Ehrenreich characterizes in her ethnographic essay. She portrays her argument in a specific structure which defines the life of low-paid employees. She describes the whole management system in the beginning and how the system affects each of the employees. Ehrenreich’s use of language emphasizes to the reader how much this issue sickens and annoys her daily. She expresses her argument through the appeal to pathos

It is to demonstrate the unbelievably stressful occupations low class employers live with everyday, and present to others who do not appreciate them because of their higher professions. Ehrenreich writes about relatable struggles in their lives which can demonstrate to the world how tough it is in those fields. Details about the excruciating pain and the difficulty of carrying on a load of the job can change the point of view of those who are willing to read this book and influence them into thinking twice before judging these employees. As a maid, Ehrenreich discusses her encounter with medical needs but is turned down by Ted, who believes that a cure to a migraine is popping to Excedrins and the cure to a rash is new latex gloves (Ehrenreich 87). If someone who is financially stable with a well paying job were to read this, they would be astounded by the idea of people not being able to get the care they need in order to maintain a healthy