Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By In America
By Barbara Ehrenreich
Metropolitan Books, October 2001 - 221 pages

I must commend Ms. Ehrenreich on a very interesting book as she has provided the reader with great insight into how many Americans have to, unfortunately, live their lives.

As part of the project Ehrenreich "leaves behind" her writing profession to see if she can survive on today's working wages. The common thread amongst the jobs she takes it that they were all physically demanding jobs that were mind numbing and typically earned under $10 an hour. She has startup money (first and last months' rent) and a car to use and very quickly discovers that life's basic needs can barely be met on minimum wage. She specifically addresses issues of affordable housing (not plentiful), food (she can't eat healthy or often) and medical insurance or the lack thereof offered in such positions.

Ms. Ehrenreich's quickly finds that it is almost a necessity to work two jobs to support herself living alone if she earns under $10 an hour, something that didn't surprise me at all. She definitely sheds some light on the working poor, specifically single mothers re-entering the workforce.

My conclusion: I learned a lot and definitely sympathize for working mothers but she never addresses key social and personal issues such as (1) drug use - SHE USES DRUGS - drugs will hold you back in our society (2) Education - if you don't have one you are forced into poverty so graduate from high school, get a loan and go to college and (3) Past mistakes affect a person's future.

The book was wonderful but I was driven nuts by the fact that none of these "characters" wanted to move ahead in life via an education. If you don't have a higher education in today's society you will frequently be forced into labor-oriented jobs where you are nothing more than a COG (cost of good) in the corporate machine. The education is used as a signaling effect to people/companies that "I want to get ahead in life," not so much that people with a degree are naturally brighter than others. What about self respect? DREAMS? Working towards those dreams? Measuring progress? All I kept seeing was mindless people that didn't want to take on responsibilities except going through life a day at a time without planning.

 

About the Author: Barbara Ehrenreich is the author of twelve books, including the New York Times bestseller The Worst Years of Our Lives, as well as Fear of Falling and Blood Rites. She lives near Key West, Florida.