The Effects Of Deprivation On Low Income

“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.

In the essay “Nickel and Dimed” by Barbara Ehrenreich she discusses the issues of low wages. Barbara worked a low paying wage job as a nurse in order to fully understand the hardship. While working this job she meets new people and writes about their struggles with low paying jobs. She believes it is important for everyone to know how the other half lives, and to shed light on the low wage market and many more problems that come with it. This essay will focus on the message Barbara wanted to get across, but also her flawed, hypocritical methods of acquiring this information.

Barbara Ehrenreich used her book Nickel and Dimed to illustrate her job assignment to live in the shoes of and, write about her experiences as a minimum wage worker in America. Ehrenreich goes to live in Key West, Maine, and Minnesota and works low wage jobs, sometimes more than one at a time. The point Ehrenreich is trying to make is that it is almost impossible to live a decent life in America with one, let alone two jobs paying very low wages. It is tough to be a low wage worker in America.

In Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America, Barbara Ehrenreich tells a powerful and gritty story of daily survival. Her tale transcends the gap that exists between rich and poor and relays a powerful accounting of the dark corners that lie somewhere beyond the popular portrayal of American prosperity. Throughout this book the reader will be intimately introduced to the world of the “working poor”, a place unfamiliar to the vast majority of affluent and middle-class Americans. What makes this world particularly real is the fact that we have all come across the hard-working hotel maid, store associate, or restaurant waitress but we hardly ever think of what their actual lives are like? We regularly dismiss these people as

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.

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.

Is America truly the land of endless opportunities? People from all over the world come to the US in high hopes of becoming rich with minimal efforts. Sadly, this is not the case. After reading Nickel and Dimed, by Barbara Ehrenreich, I have a new outlook on individuals struggling to get by on low wage paying jobs in America. Barbara travels to Florida, Maine, and Minnesota to "investigate" life as low wage worker. She plays a different role in each of these three states to experience the true life of these workers. She works at four different low paying jobs as a waitress, housekeeper at a hotel, house cleaner and a Wal-Mart associate. In the course of three months she finds insight in life with minimum wage. Reading this novel has truly

Throughout the years, the ability to survive in the American economy without a college education has been diminishing. The employment opportunities now available to many Americans without college degrees are called “unskilled” jobs. These forms of employment are often unstable and offer low pay without much of a change for advancement within the company . Low income families are often constrained by many hurdles that do not allow them to raise themselves from below the poverty line . Many misconceptions come to light when talking about those American families below the poverty line, of those misconceptions are highlighted by statements such as that they do not work, work

“$2.00 A Day: Living on Almost Nothing in America,” by Kathryn Edin and H. Luke Shaefer, discuss the 1.5 million Americans with an income of only $2 a day. Throughout the book, Edin and Shaefer discover the strategies and living conditions of 18 families living on $2 a day by spending months and even years documenting them. The authors illustrate the troubling trend of a low-wage labor market that fails to provide a living wage. Beyond the data, this novel presents a memoir of rising poverty and income inequality in America. Marx’s conflict theory comes into play on how the poor and unemployed essentially fight against each other for basic human needs like food and water in order to survive.

The main idea of Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America by Barbara Ehrenreich demonstrates the complications and the way on how minimum wage workers survived during 1996 in Florida, Maine, and in Minnesota when the welfare reform had an impact on minimum wage. Her goal was to experience how to settle for rent, food, and bills while working in minimum salary. The idea of this project came in mind when she discussed with Lewis Lapham, the editor of Harper’s, about future articles in magazines and then asked “How does anyone live on the wages available to the unskilled? How, in particular, we wondered, were the roughly four million women about to be booted into the labor market by welfare reform going to

In the documentary “Poverty in America: Born with a Wooden Spoon” we get an in depth look about what it is like to live in poverty in America. In the early moments of the documentary we are informed that the poor people of America are a diverse group of people. These people can be put into sub group and each of them has certain different characteristics. The first and most obvious group is the homeless or otherwise known as the urban poverty. These people are scattered around inner cities and it is very easy to see how hard their life is and what kind of struggle they are going through. The next group is the group of situational poverty. Situational poverty comes about when something abrupt occurs in someone’s life that causes him or her to be forced into poverty. Examples of this can be divorce, losing ones jobs, or sudden illness. Another different kind of poverty is the working class poverty. These are the people that have jobs but make so little that they cannot get themselves above the poverty line. Next are immigrants they provide cheap necessary labor for the country to flourish but yet they are still consider to be apart of poverty. They often do not even work for themselves, they leave their homelands and live on their own just so they can get jobs to send back money home to their families. The middle class can also have people in poverty. They try to cover it up by getting themselves into loads of credit card debt and eventually fall below the poverty line to the

People are still living on $2 a day here in the United States. As one of the wealthiest countries in the world, how is it possible for people to live with this little amount of money? I know that I cannot. In $2.00 a Day, Jennifer Hernandez, a single mother with two kids, is a person who lives on $2 a day as she tries to survive and support herself and her kids in the collapsing economy. The minimum wage job for cleaning houses reinforces the cycle of poverty that Jennifer and her kids live in. This cycle of poverty reveals that there needs to be major changes to the economical infrastructure of the United States since the poor cannot get themselves out of poverty even though they actively look for work or have a job.

The Working Poor: Invisible in America is a story that takes personal stories and accounts of people lives to describe the injustices that people face every day. Poverty is damaging to both the economy and the people who face it. Many times social policies are created to assist the people who are working but still struggle to get basic needs like food, utilities, gas, and medical. Poverty is a perpetuating cycle that is intended to keep the poor oppressed and discriminated against. Respectfully, this critique will address the social problems that are identified in the book, the major social welfare policy issues, the social values and beliefs that are critical and the implications for future social welfare policy and social work practice.

Although the region of Evanston has been making evident progress towards community improvement and sustainability, the issue of poverty and low income still remains. Considering different demographics and factors that make up a community, such as individual and family incomes and school lunch reduction programs, can be significant when evaluating income and poverty tendencies. Before analyzing current trends within Evanston, it can be sensible to research past trends and findings. That being said, according to the 2000 census, it was found that 24% of families were living below the poverty line, which otherwise accounted for 459 families total ("The Social Areas of Cincinnati," 2015). Furthermore, when examining trends from 1990-2000, it was found that the total number of persons living below the poverty line increased by 26%, while the city total actually decreased by 18% ("Plan Cincinnati," 2015). It can also be important when assessing household incomes and poverty lines to consider the average household income within the community in order to properly assess the significance of life in poverty within Evanston. That being said, the median household income within Evanston is only $22,763 (realtor.com, 2015). Although the information regarding the specificity of how far under the poverty line community members of Evanston exist is hard to come by, it should be noted that 35.7% of individuals residing in Evanston live below the poverty line ("Neighborhood Scout,"

Have you ever noticed those kids who are getting bullied? What about the children you see being raised by single mothers? There is no hope for them, right? Wrong! Life is crazy when you think about it. Those kids can turn out to be successful when they grow up. Children who grow up in poverty often develop a strong mindset. Poor children grow up having nothing to rely on, therefore they have to use their imagination a lot. Celebrities like Eminem and Young Boy grew up poor, but did not let poverty affect their success. Reasons why poverty did not affect their success was because they had a dream. Secondly, they developed a growth mindset and lastly they overcome struggle.