Nickel And Dimed By Barbara Ehrenreich

The book Nickel and Dimed On (Not) Getting by in America, written by Barbara Ehrenreich is a book that relates the experience of how she survived living on poverty-level wages in America as a waitress, maid and a Wal-mart sales associate. Barbara left her comfortable surroundings as a journalist with a Ph.D in biology to work various "unskilled" and "under compensated" jobs in order to achieve, "the old-fashioned kind of journalism". In regards to leaving her comfortable lifestyles for a few months traveling through Florida to Maine and Minnesota, she discovered that people who are paid six to seven dollars an hour did not generate enough income for those who did not want to live

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.

Barbara Ehrenreich’s Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By In America was the first book of its type that I’ve ever read, a real life analysis of what its like to “live in poverty,” working minimum wage jobs trying to make ends meet day in and day out. It was an intriguing story of how a woman with plenty went on to document how she lived without and I found that Ehrenreich’s commentary throughout the book offered a refreshing perspective to the usual conversation that surrounds poverty; she never thought that she was better or better off than those she met working low-paying jobs, and she was always conscious of how race intersected with class throughout her so-called field experiment.

Minimum wage has always been an everyday issue in the United States. People argue that what they’re earning isn’t enough to help them live on a day to day basis. In 2001, the minimum wage in Florida was $5.15 the hour. Barbara Ehrenreich saw how this was becoming a greater issue as time went by, so she decided to take it upon herself and do some investigating on the topic. She decided to go undercover and work a series of low paying jobs to see if it was possible to live on those salaries. Ehrenreich wrote a novel about her experiences and titles it “Nickel and Dimed.” In a specific chapter titles “Serving in Florida”, she focuses on working as a waitress in a restaurant. There she talks about what their expectations are working at

A journalist who has Ph.D in biology wanted to know how people could live with just seven dollars per hour. In Nickel and Dimed, the author, Barbara Ehrenreich, introduces how people live with low-wage jobs. She told that employers sometime see their employees as potential criminal, their employees' work environments do not suit for their works, and the employees's wages does not satisfy what they need to survive.

Macklemore’s latest single, “Kevin” voices the struggle lower class Americans go through with overusing prescription medication. Drug use and abuse has become a widespread issue within the United States. One of its most troubling aspects being the abuse of pharmaceutical and prescription drugs, painkillers raising the most concern. Drugs such as Oxycontin, Ambien, and Xanax are being prescribed by doctors and given to the public and then being misused, causing more harm than good. ADD SOURCE THAT EXPLAINS THE MANIFESTATION OF THIS. Barbara Ehrenreich, an American author and sociologist explores this very problem in her book, Nickel and Dimed. When talking about a worker’s use of medication, Ehrenreich claims that, “Unfortunately, the commercial tells us, we workers can exert the same kind of authority over our painkillers that our bosses exert over us. If Tylenol doesn’t want to work for more than four hours, you just fire its ass and switch to Aleve”(25). In other words, Ehrenreich is stating how the media is pushing drugs onto the working class and through the use of personification she illustrates how workers identify themselves with the medications they are taking. Employees will opt for the most efficient medication in order to be efficient

While so many people are struggling, even those on the higher end of the middle class have relatively little after paying the bills: on average, some $1,300 a month. One leaky roof and they’re in trouble.’

“Something is wrong, very wrong, when a single person in good health, a person who in addition possesses a working car, can barely support herself by the sweat of her brow” (Ehrenreich, 2001, pg. 199). Barbara Ehrenreich wrote this in her captivating book Nickel and Dimed, where she embarked on a journey that revalued the truth behind life in low-wage America. Growing up I was led to believe that nothing worth having comes easy. As long as I worked hard and gave everything 100% I was guaranteed success, in essence hard work was the key to success. Ehrenreich revels the sad reality for many Americans where hard work, the type you never thought possible that leads to exhaustion, does not guarantee success. Ehrenreich had very unique objectives for writing this novel and she was able to reveal the impacts of social policy then and now.

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

“The reality is that if you are poor in a fast, cold city like this, they don't care how you live so long as you are not out on the streets worrying people,? 83 year old Maria Pagan told The Times. Mrs. Pagan lived for a decade in a Bushwick building that was crumbling around her ?the landlord, the City of New York, only began making improvements when her bathroom ceiling collapsed. In comparison, Riis’s description of his photograph of Baxter Street in The New York Sun, “At 59 Baxter Street . . . is an alley. . . with tenements on either side ?so close as to almost shut out the light of day.?

What is known about the dearth of inexpensive living spaces in high-cost, heavy populated areas is its scarcity is a function of supply. Demand remains a non-issue for policy makers as demand has

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

Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting by in America written by Barbara Ehrenreich, is a book composed of Ehrenreich’s experiences working minimum wage in Florida, Maine, and Minnesota. Ehrenreich’s sheds light onto what it is like for most minimum wage workers and brings insight into what it truly is like trying to make it on $6-$7 hourly wage. Nickel and Dimed does a wonderful job of giving insight to the everyday lives of the working class and somewhat understanding their lives better. Before reading this book, I had my share of thoughts on the working class based on what I knew from growing up with family members and even my father being apart of the working class. This book reinforced a lot ideas that I had about the working class and opened my eyes into what it means to live above the poverty line.

After the week she spended with her coworkers, she had gained information on how each one of them lives, “Gail is sharing a room in a well-known downtown flophouse for $250 a week, Claude…two room apartment he shares with his girlfriend and two other and unknown person, Annette…lives with her mother, a postal clerk, Marianne, … , and her boyfriend are paying $170 a week for a one-person trailer, Billy, … , lives in a trailer he owns, paying only $400-a-month lot free, Andy, lives on his dry-docked boat, Tina, … , and her husband are paying $60 a night for a room in the Days Inn, Joan, … , lives in a van parked behind a shopping center at night and showers in Tina’s motel room.”(pg. 20-21). The survey that was conducted by the author through her personal experience demonstrated that her coworkers try to split rent in order to pay less and try to save money for the next payment for rent.

The author focuses on rising housing costs. Here is where myself and the author begin to part. Unlike the author I don’t believe the answer is this simple. Although the rates as he describes are rising faster than any other market or minimum wage. One most always look introspectively at a cause first before looking externally. The problem with blanket statement like: the singular reason is rising costs, is that it holds blameless those who choose not to better themselves. One of the major problems I see in the world is a sense of undeserved entitlement. If you can’t pay rent in downtown of city my solution is to look for housing elsewhere. I have moved across the country from my family for years and now am the closest I have been in over 4 years still 5 hours away. Growing up my housing situation has been just as unstable as many described in this piece. It was a sense of pride and entitlement that put me in that situation not rising costs. After leaving home and moving to California I found myself struggling one day to make rent, I was paying $1,800 a month just for rent let alone a car payment and utilities. Although this was unexpected and due to something I could not control I had to remedy the situation I cut back on unnecessary expenses, moved when my lease finished and now I refuse to ever be in that situation again. I am now here at UW-Madison pursuing an education that will allow me to be financially stable for the rest of my life. If I can make it with all of the setbacks I have had in my life, why shouldn’t we encourage others to do the same? Minimum wage although it should cover expenses for housing we all know doesn’t and we adjust our sights to accommodate for that. We get an education and better ourselves and those around us. This allows us the lives we want to live. In closing I hold the renters responsible