Nickel and Dimed
Reveals low wage America in all its tenacity, anxiety, and surprising generosity a land of Big Boxes, fast food, and a thousand desperate stratagems for survival.Millions of Americans work full time, year round, for poverty level wages In 1998, Barbara Ehrenreich decided to join them She was inspired in part by the rhetoric surrounding welfare reform, which promised that any job equals a better life But how can anyone survive, let alone prosper, on 6 7 an hour To find out, Ehrenreich moved from Florida to Maine to Minnesota, taking the cheapest lodgings available and accepting work as a waitress, hotel maid, house cleaner, nursing home aide, and Wal Mart salesperson She soon discovered that even the lowliest occupations require exhausting mental and physical efforts And one job is not enough you need at least two if you intend to live indoors.Nickel and Dimed reveals low wage America in all its tenacity, anxiety, and surprising generosity a land of Big Boxes, fast food, and a thousand desperate stratagems for survival Instantly acclaimed for its insight, humor, and passion, this book is changing the way America perceives its working poor. Download Nickel and Dimed By Barbara Ehrenreich – kino-fada.fr Dear Barbara Ehrenreich, How do I resent thee Let me count the ways 1 You are a wealthy, highly educated person who went on a half assed, anthropological slumming vacation.2 When said vacation was over, you told your coworkers Surprise I m not a poor person after all I m going back now to my comfortable life and then you were surprised that those coworkers were mostly worried about the fact that they d have to work the next shift with one less person.3 You also were surprised that th Dear Barbara Ehrenreich, How do I resent thee Let me count the ways 1 You are a wealthy, highly educated person who went on a half assed, anthropological slumming vacation.2 When said vacation was over, you told your coworkers Surprise I m not a poor person after all I m going back now to my comfortable life and then you were surprised that those coworkers were mostly worried about the fact that they d have to work the next shift with one less person.3 You also were surprised that the aforementioned coworkers were neither impressed nor appreciative that you turned out to be a wealthy, highly educated person writing a book about how hard it is to be a poor person 4 You were slightly offended that nobody saw through your waitress costume you assumed that smart people are visually recognizable, and it didn t seem to occur to you that real poor people might also be smart and educated.5 The experiences you had while preten...warning, a nerve has been touched I have experience working with and researching programs that aid the poor and working poor I hated this book The only role it could play is as a weak talking piece for starting up serious discussion about the struggles and needs of the poor.Barbara Ehrenreich may have stepped outside her comfort zone and into the world of the working poor, but she did it with an educated background, with money just in case , with a pompous attitude, and with the requirement warning, a nerve has been touched I have experience working with and researching programs that aid the poor and working poor I hated this book The only role it could play is as a weak talking piece for starting up serious discussion about the struggles and needs of the poor.Barbara Ehrenreich may have stepped outside her comfort zone and into the world of the working poor, but she did it with an educated background, with money just in case , with a pompous attitude, and with the requirement of a car at all times.She also did it without many barriers that are very real to the working poor a child or children childcare costs low IQ or other learning disabilities an alcohol or drug addiction an abusive partner lack of transportation English as a second language bad credit felony convictio...The two sentence summary of this book is PhD and respected writer decides to find out how the other two thirds live To this end she goes undercover as an unskilled laborer at three minimum wage jobs waitress, Wal mart employee and Merry Maid each in a different city, each for one month.Things I liked The premise Things I hated 1 Her shocked tone of discovery Newsflash Living on minimum wage is hard nigh on impossible Educated people have it pretty easy comparatively Entry level minimum The two sentence summary of this book is PhD and respected writer decides to find out how the other two thirds live To this end sh...This book seriously pissed me off Normally I don t write reviews for books that I loathe, but I m making an exception for this one It has enjoyed tremendous popularity, and thus has misinformed a whole lot of people.In the late 1990s, the author I ve enjoyed some of her other books decided to explore the challenges of low wage Ame...I m going to step on some toes here and I apologize if I do I AM one of the working poor that she talks about here and I DO believe in pulling myself up and making a better life for myself But what I want to know is this Unless you have been where I am, how can you comment How can you also call her a bleeding heart Is this a country for the haves only And the have nots just have not uhh uhh, I just don t understand We got an election coming up and some folks are fussing about this countr I m going to step on some toes here and I apologize if I do I AM one of the working poor that she talks about here and I DO believe in pulling myself up and making a better life for myself But what I want to know is this Unless you have been where I am, how can you comment How can you also call her a bleeding heart Is this a country for the haves only And the have nots just have not uhh uhh, I just do...Here s a down and dirty assessment of Nickel and Dimed, by Barbara Ehrenreich First the positive Interesting premise writer decides to try to live on the wages that unskilled workers waitresses, home hotel cleaners, department store Walmart, for instance clerks earn to see if she can do it and see if she learns anything in the process She exposes some very unethical even illegal em...Ehrenreich, a woman who has a Ph.D., goes undercover working low paying jobs to see if one can earn a living with such work in America.One can t.She tries to make ends meet on the following jobs waitressing, hotel housekeeping, Maid Service, nursing home attendant, and Wal Mart employee, often working two jobs at a time.This shocking expos reveals the horrific conditions that the working poor toil under Well, at least they re shocking to someone who s never had to struggle to make ends me Ehrenreich, a woman who has a Ph.D., goes undercover working low paying jobs to see if one can earn a living with such work in America.One can t.She tries to make ends meet on the following jobs waitressing, hotel housekeeping, Maid Service, nursing home attendant, and Wal Mart employee, often working two jobs at a time.This shocking expos reveals the horrific conditions that the working poor toil under Well, at least they re shocking to someone who s never had to struggle to make ends meet and put food on the table.There s always this niggling knowledge that Ehrenreich can pick up and leave at any time that this is still an experiment to her Of course, people who work two minimum wage jo...Very quick explanation of the premise of this one a woman, who is a writer journalist, is talking to her publisher about what she wants to write about next and says, someone ought to write a book about how hard it is to get by on the minimum wage in America The publisher says, Okey dokey the book is set in the US so I m trying to give you a feeling of verisimilitude you ve hired High fives all around Before I started this book I really worried I mean, I m a bit of a worrier anyway b Very quick explanation of the premise of this one a woman, who is a writer journalist, is talking to her publisher about what she wants to write about next and says, someone ought to write a book about how hard it is to get by on the minimum wage in America The publisher says, Okey dokey the book is set in the US so I m trying to give you a feeling of verisimilitude you ve hired High fives all around Before I started this book I really worried I mean, I m a bit of a worrier anyway but mostly I worried that this would be the sort of book that my mother would hate The sort of book my mother hates is the sort of book that is written by someone she calls middle class actually, she would probably call them middle class twits and these people would then presume to be able to write about what my mum would call the working class.These people, these middle class book writing types basically give my mother the shits It is nothing personal, you understand i...Okay, I suddenly got a Like on my non review of this book, so I m going to say a few words about it, which I ve thought off and on for a while.I ve seen very put downish reviews here on GR about the book, andso about the author.It s held that Ehrenreich was a fake, had no idea what the working poor face, was just trying to make a buck off them, the book totally discredited because she had money and could just walk away when she was finished, or if she got in trouble, yada yada This sort o Okay, I suddenly got a Like on my non review of this book, so I m going to say a few words about it, which I ve thought off and on for a while.I ve seen very put downish...When this book came out, I was working in a busy bookstore in a fairly small town We had a stack of them at the counter, and I read bits on my breaks While I was glad to see a popular book addressing the problems of the working poor, I couldn t help but feel like she d taken a vacation in my life and then made a bunch of money writing a book about it, something she could only have achieved because she had already been in a position of privilege Your average house cleaner, lacking an advanced When this book came out, I was working in a busy bookstore in a fairly small town We had a stack of them at the counter, and I read bits on my breaks While I was glad to see a popular book addressing the problems of the working poor, I couldn t help but feel like she d taken a vacation in my life and then made a bunch of money writing a book about it, something she could only have achieved because she had already been in a position of privilege Your average house cleaner, lacking an advanced degree and a publishing advance to live on while writing, couldn t have written it And while it s unarguably a Good Thing to have anyone speak up for the voiceless masses, did the low paid workers of America get anything tangible out of it At any rate, I was standing at the counter one night when a well dressed couple came in The woman pointed at the book with excitement Look, honey, that s the book she said The one where she took all those terrible jobs I heard she even worked as a WAITRESS He...
- English
- 07 January 2017 Barbara Ehrenreich
- Paperback
- 240 pages
- 0805063897
- Barbara Ehrenreich
- Nickel and Dimed