Nickle and Dimed

In the book, Nickle and Dimed, the author and narriator, Barbara Ehrenreich, faces many struggles while living in a world of poverty. These struggles have opened her eyes to this world that many of us middle-classmen dont know about.

While Ehrenreich was working these minimun wage jobs, an obvious problem was money. She worked most of her days doing hard, monotonous work, but she still barely scraping by. Even though she had some luxuries most people living in poverty don't have, like a bank account to fall back on, she sometimes found in difficult to make enough money. At one point, she was working as a waitress and a housekeeper for the hotel next door to the restaurant, just to get by. Another strggle she faced was the people. People who weren't living in poverty were not always sympathetic and were sometimes flat out rude. Ehrenreich watched employers treat people of minorities different then they treated her. Employers wouldn't hire her as a housekeeper because that job was reserved for people who didn't speak fluent english and were "unskilled".

These experiences opened her eyes to the world of poverty. She watched her coworkers sleep in cars because they didnt own homes. She watched families try to get by on minimun wage. She was apart of the world of poverty and there was no way for her to avoid seeing all the hardship.

In the "Evaluation" chapter, Ehrenreich argues that minimun wage is not enough to live on. Employers will do anything to avoid raising wages. Employers also don't treat low-class workers with respect and they are often degraded by their employers. Low-class workers are the backbone of our society and deserve aan easier life for all the hard work they do.

Disscussion Question 17) After reading Nickle and Dimed, I think that having a job is bteer than not having a job. Even though the job you might have is hard and low-paying, at least you have some steady income. You have a chance, even if it is a slim one, to move up. This book didn't make me feel angry, but it did open my eyes to the world of poverty and I feel better informed.