Nickle and Dimed

In Barbard Ehrenreich's Nickle and Dimed, Barbara dives into the povertish conditions of a minimum wage worker, and to see the struggles of low paid workers in the United States, and whether these people could live off of minimum wage. Ehrenreich struggled much the same way in one area as she did the other two she lived in, Which were dealing with management, exhausting hours, finding a 'nice' place to live with the wage she was earning. One realization Ehrenreich learns is living with shelter and food means working multiple jobs. Many of Ehrenreichs jobs showed the struggle of dealing with Manager staff and how one wrong word can leave you jobless. Through the life of poverty, Ehrenreich realized many instabilities in life can affect someone , whether your rasing a family, or you have health concerns to deal with. In the end Ehrenreich's view on the poverty in America is that the minimum wage worker earns meager amount of salary barely enough to live well, and not enough to escape the clutches of 'Low class living'.

Reader's Guide:

Question #16

Since 2000 much of the United States economy has become very challenging for most American's unlike that of the early 21st century. With the economic crisis opprotunities for work has been shot, since major businesses are having to lay off workers and cut salaries just to stay stable in todays economy. With workers being layed off and kept from finding new jobs, Ehrenreich would find the struggle of low wage life putting her on the streets before work could even be found.