Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America | Barbara Ehrenreich

Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America | Barbara Ehrenreich | Good Book for those thinking about college

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Nickel and Dimed: ...

	Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America Barbara Ehrenreich Metropolitan Books, 2001 - 224 pages average customer review:based on 1078 reviews view larger image
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Compelling and Maddening

This book has a very promising premise, one that many middle- or upper-class people living in the United States never examine: what life is like for those trying to survive on minimum-wage salaries. The author travels from city to city, going through the process of trying to put down roots, and dealing with the difficulty in starting a new life, wrestling especially with the question of how to get a job without a permanent address, and how to find affordable housing when she doesn't yet have a paycheck.

Quickly the author learns that it is nearly impossible for her to survive anywhere on a single job, yet she also finds out that she simply doesn't have the necessary stamina to work more than one job at a time. It is furthermore a nightmare of scheduling to try to find two jobs that don't overlap their hours.

I found this book maddening; I was infuriated at the fact that those working the jobs alongside the author couldn't seem to get ahead, and the ways in which they were taken advantage of by their employers, as in the withholding of a first paycheck from the employees who desperately needed that money for rent or food.

The other maddening part of this book was the fact that there didn't seem to be any solution to this problem of poverty. I was left with an overwhelming feeling of helplessness on finishing this book, horrified at the thought that so many people are living in such dire circumstances, one step away from homelessness and hunger.

Although the author is up-front about the fact that her experience won't be truly authentic, in that she has financial and social resources to fall back on in her real life, I was put off by the fact that she would smoke marijuana shortly before applying for jobs she should have known would require a drug test. With all of the other comforts she was willing to give up for her story, it seems like she would have refrained from this behavior that had the potential to completely sabotage her experiment.

Overall, this book gave me a great deal to think about, and made me appreciate my relative financial security all the more.

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Good Book for those thinking about college

I think that this book is a must reead for those who are trying figure out if they should go to college or not. It give a very good picture of how it really is when you do not have higher education.

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