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

Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America | Barbara Ehrenreich | Great look at America from first person perspective

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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 1079 reviews view larger image
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Needs to be read and understood

First, for those reviewers who accuse Ehrenreich, the author, of being a commie, or a socialist, or any other familiar devil term, they either haven't read the book or have no understanding of the US and the principles for which we stand. Many stalwarts of the left have acknowledged that we are probably the freest country ever, to paraphrase one. And I have argued, to the chagrin of some, that we are far more "populist" than most any other country. In that populist tradition, Ehrenreich wrote this valuable volume.

For the one who commented on the author's admitted drug use, well, that's a non-issue.

And, as to those who accuse Ehrenreich of arrogance, you may be showing more of your own colors than hers. Have you been able to examine the plight of the working poor? Could you express it as eloquently as she did?

I listened to a recorded version of this classic. The jury's still out as to my view of that "new" medium. But it certainly gives me time to "read" something for which I might not otherwise have time.

Others have stated the book's premises: The author is a journalist with a Ph.D. in biology. She has a noted reputation among the educated. She talked with the editor of Harper's about investigating that plight to which I referred, and he suggested she "join them."

Ehrenreich starts with her explanation of her set of rules. She'd calculated how much she needed to live, and for what little she'd be willing to settle for in terms of wage.

She started as a waitress in some restaurants near where she lived. Among the first things that astonished her--something about with I' ve been expressing concern since it hit--was the cost of housing relative to what her fellow waitresses were making. Some lived in their cars, others were able to barely survive by sharing a place with a boyfriend or other family member.

Another issue she raised was hierarchy: what purpose do some of the "managers" serve except to harass the employees? (Where I used to work, a place I left in good terms which I still share with colleagues and managers, I wondered, "How many managers does it take to change a light bulb?") We somehow assume that such a hierarchy needs to exist to ensure that work is done. Ehrenreich concludes that that's not true.

She also worked at a nursing home. She had some heart warming stories about demented seniors and their dubious survival.

She proceeded to Maine where she worked for a maid's service--which charged customers $25 an hour while paying the maids $6.65 an hour. She was flabbergasted at how some of their customers had cameras available to them to ensure that the maids weren't stealing anything and that they were "doing their job" (for barely a quarter of what the maid service was charging the customer!) And in the case of one of the service's customers, a rather buxom woman who lived in a suburban Portland mansion barely fit under a desk to make sure that the maids got every single speck of dust!

Then Ehrenreich went to Minnesota, for reasons she wasn't able to discern, and "interviewed" for jobs at a hardware establishment and at Wal-Mart. She chose to work for the latter as the former's 11 hour shifts she wouldn't put up with. But, what with the extremely limited housing market in Minnesota, that gave her several other subjects to cover, including economic statistics, of dubious credibility, and housing availability and prices. Her descriptions of where she had to live were some of the wittiest portions of the text.

My appreciation for the author's eloquence is immense. Again, some accuse her of being arrogant. Well, she was in a position to investigate the conditions in which she reports. Should Nelly Bly not have reported on the asylums of yesteryear because she was demonstrably NOT insane? Ehrenreich had a great deal of sympathy with her co-workers, to few of whom she admitted her real role, that of an investigative author. And she asked, "Why did they put up with it?" She concluded that not only did other jobs in the area not really pay much, if any, more. But many of them had transportation problems: How do you get to work 40 minutes away if you don't have a car?

There were other issues in the employment process, especially drug tests and employment "tests." We are NOT unwilling to succumb to these foolish drug tests while there is no evidence that they do any good? (She refers to one in which the government spent literally $70,000 per testee!) And, something she doesn't even mention, they're hopelessly inaccurate. She does mention that heroin and cocaine leave your system in a few days while marijuana, the least threating of the substances, can remain in your system for weeks. And there's no test for alcohol. I took a personality test a number of years ago to which, I admitted to the manager (who hired me) that most of my honest answers would have been "that depends." And "Skeptical Inquirer" had an article a few years ago which described that these tests haven't even been created by social scientists. They're at best a means of "management" establishing itself as of a higher caste.

Oh, and she does cover the issue of health insurance: none of the jobs had that benefit. So many of her colleagues had to grin and bear it through a number of health threats. For that fact, we Americans should be collectively ashamed of ourselves.

It's hard for me to express greater appreciation for this book. It may bust some American mythology, particularly that if you work hard enough you can make it here. (Not if you're paying 3/4 of your income for a dump to live in!) She summarizes the book with fact that the many--MILLIONS!--of working poor are making enormous sacrifices so that the rest of us can be "comfortable." I repeat MILLIONS. This isn't a minor problem. And the economic statistics to which she refers are dated. They've become substantially worse. (Housing prices are only one!)

I've wanted to read this book for years and finally got around to it. There's so, so much more I could say about it, but read it yourself. I truly believe it should be required reading in every high school and every college. It's NOT an ideological issue, but a very real issue of which too many of are sadly unaware. Read it and weep.

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Great look at America from first person perspective

If you are interested in reading someone who 'walked the walk' in Sociology, this book is a must have. It is listed on Leadership and Sociology must reads and for good reason. Definitely worth every penny of the price.

Finally, a view from the invisible side

This book is fantastic! I was required to read it for a Sociology class and I am really happy that the Professor picked this one. I hope that more people will read this book so they can start looking closer at the invisible side of the service industry. I would love to have this be required reading in high schools so teenagers could learn about this before they go out into the world.

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Nickel and Dimed

This book opened my eyes to how people really try to live! I look at workers in so called low paying jobs, quite differently. I see them.

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