Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting by in America by Barbara Ehrenreich (2002, Paperback, Reprint)

Nickel and Dimed (2001)
I am a member of a book club with a variety of books to read this year,so I am reading a few books by the same authors to get a sample of their styles and opinions (non-fiction books).

Barbara Ehrenreich writes about the non-educated poor class of people in entry level positions. The author has a Phd in biology and puts herself out into the real world with waitresses, cleaning personel, and salespersons to experience what it is like to work for minimum wage and barely make enough to eat and live. Ms. Ehrenreich goes to several states to see how location affects her experiences.

The book is an eye-opener for people who have never worked in the lower wage areas. Personally, I think everyone should read this book so that we all become more compassionate and polite in dealing with service people. Life in a low-income job should not be as difficult as it is now, and free education and chance for advancement should be readily available and encouraged.

If a little more humor had been added to the story lines of the book,it could have been a hot seller and perhaps made a difference in who read it. Ms. Ehrenreich, by living her research on the working poor, is to be commended on her efforts and writing style, but I felt she was a little lofty in her choice of descripive words for this type of story.

I enjoyed the book and was appreciative of the reader's guide. The next book selection for our meeting is "Bait and Switch" by Ehrenreich. I am looking forward to reading and discussing this one also. Having read this book, I plan to read some of the other 11 books written by Ehrenreich.

This is a book of social comment and importance to the extent that it should be a "must read" for high school students-particulary those considering dropping out! As a retired teacher, I highly recommend this book for parents of teenagers who are considering not going on for more education after high school!

I rate this book excellent and plan to pass it on to many people!

I mean really now. Who sees any sort of humor at all in this book?

I actually find the author's tone to be completely indignant and arrogant, she is ungracious, unkind, even cruel in her tone towards her "friends" and co-workers while she is playing poor.

She even goes so far as to compare her plight to that of a princess being punished by being forced to hand feed all her subjects... this lady is a real piece of work. She is absolutely deplorable and such a snobbish, egotistical (well a not so very nice person)! Her "insights" and her surprising realizations scare me, I mean if real people actually find shock and awe at the same everyday DUH she makes a big fuss over, then this country is way past salvageable!!!

She is a career essayist who lowers herself to play poor for a little while, and tries to maintain a decent quality of life while getting by on minimum wage, something which is definitely not her area of expertise. She describes looking for places to live, jobs, working conditions and overall environments of the places she goes.

She alienated, humiliated, and demeaned almost everyone she met, though not in any sort of dialog to their face, just her thoughts about them...

This is definitely a must read, but not for the reasons by which I kept being mislead. For people like myself, this is at times hard to read, however it is definitely a book you will not soon forget, and definitely an author you will not soon forget either.

I needed to buy it for a college class.

I bought Nickel & Dimed for my book club. We were looking for a work of non-fiction that would provide us some insight into way America functions today. I found that Barbara Ehrenreich's experience to live the life of the American Working Class in low-wage jobs a challenge to see how the poor of America survive. It was amazing to read how the infrastructure in America keeps the low wage worker in its place. It was interesting to note her commentary on how employers will provide anything other than increases in compensation as incentive to the employee. Working as a Human Resources professional, I find that everyone would forgo the free donuts if we could get a little more pay. That is where it counts!

The thesis of the book is very interesting but Ms. Erhenreich set out to prove a point and not test the validity of that thesis. She ignores the higher end jobs available for people with little experience. She paints the picture she wants portrayed and ignores the fact that, with a GED and no experience what so ever, jobs in middle America are available that pay $14 to $18 dollars an hour and have huge opportunity for advancement. Waitress, housecleaner or hotel maid are not the only jobs available.
That being said, Ms. Erhenreich does a splendid job of portraying the absolutely desperate lives lived by millions every day.

Read this book with an open mind and you'll come away with a better understanding of what the working poor go through. I say read it with an open mind because it was written by a well educated and well situated author who is definitely not among the working poor and who had a safety net to fall back on. She had her car, she had health insurance and so on. Many of our true working poor have none of these things.

The author was able to show the plight of those who are stuck in this endless cycle and she shows it very well with all of her examples. There has been argument made in many forums and in the media that Ms Ehrenreich does not show in her book how a person stuck in this situation can make it out or give equal time to those who have been there and have made it out. While I agree that this is possible for the right person with the right education, the right connections at the right time, and the blessing of good health, Ms Ehrenreich's point is well made by this book that many of these people don't have even one, let alone all, of these things. They just continue the cycle endlessly with little hope.