ND from Samantha Kloft

Nickel and Dimed

            Throughout Barbara Ehrenreich’s experience during Nickel and Dimed, she faced the many struggles of low wage jobs, inadequate housing, unemployment, and the stress of being over worked. While starting out in Key West, Florida, Ehrenreich survived on one and at times, two low wage jobs and lived in areas less familiar to her everyday surroundings. Already beginning on her journey, Barbara Ehrenreich has admitted that this has broadened her idea about the lives of the lower class Americans. Many of Ehrenreich’s co-workers in the waitressing business had multiple jobs and lived with other family members, in hotels, or even in their own cars. After a month in Florida, she had officially struggled with the feeling of living on a job that had paid minimum wage or even less and she had decided to move to her next location, Maine. Once in Maine, Barbara Ehrenreich had gotten a full view of how overworked and underappreciated low wage workers really are. After acquiring two new jobs, one as a maid during the week and a second as a dietary aide on the weekends, Ehrenreich saw co-workers with health problems and physical injuries that they were forced to work through due to a lack of good health insurance. Barbara Ehrenreich also experienced the unappreciative attitude of other co-workers and even company managers when trying to help or stand up for what she believes is right. Before choosing Minneapolis, Minnesota as her final destination, Barbara Ehrenreich did not realize the large amount of inadequate housing and unavailability of jobs in the area. So once in Minneapolis, she had a very hard time finding a decent and safe home in her price range and was even unemployed for a decent amount of time. Ehrenreich did finally get a job at Wal-Mart where she constantly felt victimized and questioned for time theft and drug use. After Barbara Ehrenreich’s undercover research for her novel she realized that the low class Americans deserve more recognition for their hard work and labor considering that they lay the foundation for our society.

(Question 17) Like Barbara Ehrenreich’s new view on the low class workers, I too now have more sympathy and respect for the hard work and stressful jobs that they attend to everyday. But I do still believe that having any job is better than having no job at all because I would not want to live off of the government to survive and not fell self-reliable and undeserving of the things that I have.