On monday morning, I was just about to walk out the door to my bus when I thought, "Hey, I need a book for English class today!"That was when I ran downstairs and found an excellent book that I hadn't read for several years. It named Nickel and Dimed and its author is Barbara Ehrenreich. I compare Nickel and Dimed to Don't Eat This Book by Morgan Spurlock's (remember Super Size Me?) in the way that the author goes out and does something that no sane person would do, enter the "unskilled" market (In Spurlock's case, eating a diet of McDonalds for a month). Ehrenreich leaves her home, and enters the world of low wage work.
Ehrenrich goes through three states, Minnesota, Maine, and Florida, in order to find if low paying work is a possible lifestyle. Her list of jobs ranges from waitressing at restaurants, and working at Wal- Mart, to working at Merry Maids. Her book was written in order to defeat common thoughts like, if someone works, they aren't poor or that low wage workers are too lazy to rise through the ranks. To back up the first example, there is a passage in Nickel and Dimed that works very well, "Joan, lives in a van parked behind a shopping center at night and showers in Tina's motel room." (Nickel and Dimed, 26.) She also works a full time job. This shows that even though she works many many hours, she still has to do all that.javascript:void(0)
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2 comments:
Very true. I've never believed that poor people are lazy, but I think that the idea actually brings in some political views rather well. For example, public healthcare, a democratic-supported idea, basically believes in the hard work of the poor, where republican-supported capitalism believes in the skill the poor should have to rise through the ranks. Sounds like Barbara is an adventurer and a democrat-- sounds like a fun book!
I've always heard that even people who have multiple jobs or work full-time sometimes still end up in poverty. I don't see how that could work, but maybe this book says something about our government, and the need for higher wages in lower class america. This would be an interesting read.
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