Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting by in America

Rating:
Summary: Very readable, extremely important
Review: The author drops her writing career and works for a short time in three states as a waitress, a maid (and nursing home assistant on weekends), and a stock sorter at Wal-Mart. It's a sort of experiment to see if she, like the millions of America's poor, can try to make enough on bare minimum wage to pay rent and food for at least a month. While this is hardly a feat of in-depth undercover journalism (Ehrenreich refuses to relinquish a car, quits the jobs after a month or when she has a rough day, and is picky about housing; George Orwell would smirk endlessly), the book more than makes its point. It is simply shocking that so many who work full time, sometimes also having another part-time job, cannot make enough to live alone. That so many of America's poorest cannot scrounge together enough to make a deposit on an apartment, so they live continuously and precariously in motels or other weekly lodgings. That so many large corporations and the vile managerial staff they employ are so devious, truculent, and willing to break the law in their constant degradation of wage employees. Wal-Mart in particular comes out looking pretty bad, the employees can't even speak to each other on the floor; however, maid referral services are also exposed as hypocritical and uncaring. Ehrenreich may not be an intrepid reporter, but she's a fine prose stylist and essayist, and she says what needs saying. Bravo.

Rating:
Summary: Shameful
Review: The book shows how shameful the working wage is in the US. It's not even livable, and this book makes you realize it. You learn some interesting and scary facts in the footnotes. "Nickel" will make you think twice when you walk into Walmart.

Rating:
Summary: Illuminating the Plight of the Working Poor
Review: The book, Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America, written by Barbara Ehrenreich, is an intelligent and witty account of the author's personal experiences as she goes undercover as a low wage worker. It is thought provoking and insightful, and provides a deep understanding of the struggles faced by low wage earners. It serves as a conscience for all of us as we interact with those who serve us in restaurants, hotels, and stores. Working poor are often treated as if their presence is not worthy of recognition.

Ehrenreich demonstrates that the difficulties faced throughout her journey are wide spread, and are not limited to a specific city or part of the country. Ehrenreich worked as a waitress in Key West, Florida, as a cleaning woman and nursing aid in Portland, Maine, and as a floor clerk for Wal-Mart in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Each of these jobs paid approximately seven dollars an hour, which was barely enough to provide for her bare essentials. She struggled with housing, food, transportation, and miscellaneous expenses that pushed her over her budget. She was often forced to make compromises such as staying in cheap hotels while she searched for a place to live.

Despite her own struggles, she recognized the hardships of less fortunate individuals and made efforts to reach out and befriend them. She became an advocate for her co-workers. One time she was working as a cleaning woman on a crew and another member, Holly, injured her ankle but was afraid to get assistance from the manager. Ehrenreich recollects, "I blow. I can't remember the exact words, but I tell him [Ted the manager] he can't keep putting money above his employees' health and I don't want to hear about 'working through it,' because this girl is in really bad shape (p. 110)." This is just one example of how the author puts her own welfare on the line for the sake of another. It also points out how invested she became in her role as a low wage earner.

Ehrenreich found that one low wage job was insufficient to cover necessary expenses. She tried holding down two jobs, but quickly found that this was not as easy as she had hoped, as it quickly exhausted her physical and emotional stability. In a moment of complete and utter exhaustion, she realized that she was unable to meet the demands of two jobs, and just walked out. "... clearly I have failed. Not only had I flamed out as a housekeeper/server, I had forgotten to give George my tips, and, for reason perhaps best known to hardworking, generous people like Gail and Ellen, this hurts. I don't cry, but I am in a position to realize, for the first time in many years, that the tear ducts are still there and still capable of doing their job (p. 48)." This moment crystallized her understanding of how hard the work is along with how much stamina is required. Being smart and educated will not provide her with protection.

In the final analysis, Ehrenreich creates a window into the pain and suffering of a large number of Americans who work for small amounts of money and obtain few benefits. Despite these dismal conditions, she colorfully outlined the inner strength and the human bonds that are formed which help sustain these workers throughout their lives. Ehrenreich's insights cannot help but leave a reader with respect and admiration for the low paid worker who plays an essential role in the American economy.

Rating:
Summary: needs to be told
Review: The bottom line -- this book sheds light on an issue that many people would rather not think about. Agenda-pushing critics on either side will make their predictable arguments (is it not a smug stretch to suggest the author advocates "socialism" and is among "that rarest of breeds" for addressing the shortcomings of workfare and minimum wage?) .
The book is at once entertainingly told from Ehrenreich's already pointed and indignant perspective and somewhat frustrating for it, in that she doesn't engage her co-workers enough (the way Turkel did) for us to fully understand how and why they cope. Is she undervaluing the importance of family, community, and religion in her subjects' lives? Or have we simply created a culture of resignation among those we have neglected to properly pay and adequately educate? In "The Working Poor", David Shipler makes the point that hard work is not enough to move up in the country, the **entire** system has to work flawlessly. To hard work, you must add public transportation, safe public housing, adequate education and child care...these must be essentials, not debate points.
It would have been helpful for Ehrenreich to delve a bit further into her subjects, as the book feels at times less anthropological than polemic. But in a country where our corporate executives need to make $30 million a year this is definitely a story worth telling and reading. As Shipler writes, no one who works hard should be poor in America.

Rating:
Summary: Wow
Review: This book is such an illuminating read. It truly opened my eyes in a way that few other books have been able to do. Ehrenreich is such a great storyteller, too which makes the book a fun read as well. I can't imagine that anyone wouldn't enjoy reading this book. Unless they had some political reason- like, say, they are a manager at Wal-mart or something. Very entertaining.

Rating:
Summary: The Working Poor of America get a voice
Review: This case study in, as the subtitle says "(Not) Getting by in America" was in many ways surprising. I thought I had a pretty good handle on the fact that there are people in desperate straits out there, that being in desperate straights is awful, and that it would be better if no one had to do it. But some of the problems that are described in this book were things I had never even thought of. One of her main contentions is that many of the working poor are borderline homeless, living, ironically, in expensive motels because they can never get far enough ahead to save the deposit for a real apartment. The lack of medical care and desperate penny-pinching wasn't surprising, but what struck me was that the author, daughter of a union organizer and left wing journalist, was consistently surprised at the importance that her co-workers placed on the jobs they were doing, quite apart from the monetary rewards or managerial incentives.

This struck me as especially tragic, because it just reinforces the fact that most people take satisfaction in doing something well, and it's obvious from the lives these people lead that they aren't in the habit of shirking work. Shouldn't hard, quality work bring you a life with the basics we should all have? A thought provoking, if not especially surprising book.

Rating:
Summary: Nickel and Dimed - An Overdue Point of View
Review: Through her book, Nickel and Dimed, Barbara Ehrenreich gives middle and upper class America an overdue glimpse into the lives of the less fortunate.
In the beginning of the book, Ehrenreich introduces herself as a well respected writer/journalist with a Ph.D. in biology, who, while having a discussion with Lewis Lapham, editor of Harper's, finds herself on the topic of poverty. "One of my more familiar themes," Ehrenreich admitted.
While on this topic she naively suggests, "Someone ought to do the old-fashioned kind of journalism - you know, go out there and try it for themselves."
She soon found herself leaving her middle class life behind in order to work laborious jobs for minimum wage, and she spends the rest of the book describing what she encounters.
Ehrenreich gives the reader detailed descriptions of the good and the bad, leaving nothing unexplained. She is also very passionate about almost everything she comes across, and this is reflected in her writing, allowing the reader to get involved in the story.
Throughout the book, Ehrenreich does her best to stay with her intent and experience what she can to the fullest. Again, her passion for the story is seen as she gets deeper and deeper into it.
She even goes as far as to live out of a motel which she describes as, "My little outpost in Motel 6."
This idea of experiencing poverty first-hand, however, is somewhat unrealistic. It is practically impossible to truly experience poverty with a background like Ehrenreich's. She is well educated and seems to have an agenda in mind, which automatically gives her an upper-hand over her fellow minimum-wage-making co-workers.
Furthermore, all the reader has as evidence is Ehrenreich's word as to what she experiences, so although there is no true evidence of this, it can be suspected that Ehrenreich tends to exaggerate the story.
This concept is not unheard of considering the fact that the book is meant to get people's interest, but when Ehrenreich generalizes her co-workers at one of her first jobs as, "dysfunctional freaks with crooked, yellowing teeth," the reader begins to wonder how much of her descriptions are sincere, and how many are simply added for their shock factor.
True, the basis for the book is not perfect, but Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich is an easy read with a new and interesting point of view and an important moral message.