ND from Katie Augsburger

Nickel and Dimed

               In Nickel and Dimed, Barbara Ehrenreich takes an investigative journey into the world of low-wage living. She took 3 months and went to 3 different cities to see if one could survive on minimum wage. In each city she had more or less the same problems. First low-rent apartments or trailers were always very hard to come by, and in a few cases she had to rely on her emergency money to pay for hotel rooms. Then, the amount of work she had to accomplish every day to receive an adequate cash flow was very demanding, and by the end of every day she was extremely exhausted. This type of work would be wearing on the body over an extended period of time. Finally, Ehrenreich had trouble coming up with enough money to buy food every day. She usually resorted to fast food, and even used food stamps to save money. These problems and many more helped open Ehrenreich’s eyes to what’s really going on in the country. It made her appreciate her college degree and high-paying career much more. She realized that someone needed to do something about it because the government plans aren’t cutting it. Ehrenreich concludes that the minimum wage workers are currently the majority of employees in the nation and they are the people who need the most attention. She proposes to form unions and that these minimum wage workers take a stand for what they need.

16. Nickel and Dimed takes place in 1998-2000, a time of unprecedented prosperity in America. Do you think Ehrenreich’s experience would be different in today’s economy? How so?

               Ehrenreich’s experience would’ve been different in today’s economy, but not in a good way. Gas prices have almost doubled making it less economical for someone to live farther from where they work, and the cost of living has been increasing while minimum wage has not. Therefore, Ehrenreich’s experiment would have been much tougher. It would’ve been harder to find an apartment close to her job for a decent price, making everything else harder including having enough money for basics like food.