Nickel and Dimed

The authro of Nickel and Dimed, Barbara Ehrenreich, goes out into the world to experience the life of a low-wage worker. Ehrenreich runs across many struggles such as finding a job, finding a cheap place to live and using her time and money wisely. Because pay is low and rent in some areas is high, Ehrenreich is forced to take on two jobs to get by just like many other people in America. The hours of hard work and short breaks begin to take a toll on Ehrenreich's body making it hard to push through another job. The struggles Ehrenreich faces not only make her a stronger person physically and emotionally, but also open her eyes to what many American's go through everyday. When Ehrenreich finds herself living in a very poor area with nothing to protect her from the outside world but a door without a bolt, she realizes that many women, single and with/without children live the same way everyday. Ehrenreich also realizes that a uniform can make many of the people she worked with look like middle class people who have one job that can support their families when really they are living in poverty.

In the Evaluation section at the end of Nickel and Dimed, Ehrenreich argues that many people living on welfare do not deserve to be on welfare. People with disabilities have every right to be on welfare, but people that are receiving our money for sitting at home, not making any attempt to go out and get a job, and continuously having more kids than they can support should not be part of this program. Ehrenreich believes that we should all be going out there and making an attempt to get a job and fight for our rights as workers.

In A Reader's Guide at the end of Nickel and Dimed, Ehrenreich asks, "Have your notions of poverty and prosperity changed since reading the book? My answer to this would be yes. I've been able to travel to many different places and I've seen all different kinds of poverty whether it's people who are physically handicapped and can't get a job or people that don't have any sort of education to allow them to get a job. I finished reading this book the night before I left to go to New York and when I got there, my perspective on how others live was greatly changed. Every time I went into a restaurant, store, or even walked down the street I paid attention to how people were dressed and what kind of footwear they had on. A few of the people that I saw on the subway seemed to be trying to get a few last minutes of sleep, they had extra clothes with them in ripped shopping bags and extremely worn out shoes. Based on their physical appearance I assumed that these people may have been like the workers I read about in Nickel and Dimed. I've always known that there are many people in the world that don't have it as good as many others do, but Nickel and Dimed has made me realize that you may be talking to someone who lives in poverty and never know it because of a uniform.