You know the economy is bad when a person is working 40 hours a week and they are still not making enough to get by and living in poverty. When there are more foreclosed and vacant homes, but an increase in the opening of motels and efficiencies. And recent college graduates are settling for mediocre jobs that do not require much skill. Yet, we brainwash them to obtain an education to avoid such occurrences. Who is to blame for the misfortune of such a vast amount of people? This is one of the questions Barbara Ehrenreich sought to answer as she went undercover to see if the wages the unskilled earn in certain jobs are livable. To begin, in researching and writing of her book, Ehrenreich’s main objective was to prove that due to the greed …show more content…
Poverty is perceived as something hard to get into, and easy to get out of. Not taking into account that some people are born into it generationally. Or, by thoroughly examining the economic and social conditions in which those people live. Hence, this is what Ehrenreich did throughout her entire book. First beginning with a recap of her childhood, and a discussion about how her family was borderline impoverished and that only until her father got a job as a miner, did her family escape to middle-class status (pg. 9). She then goes on to impose restrictions on herself to further solidify and to give her the most accurate experience of a working-class laborer. Rule one was that she could not, in her research for jobs, fall back on any skills derived from her education or usual work-not that there were a lot of want ads for essayist anyway. Rule two was that she had to take the highest paying job that was offered, and to do her best in holding on to it. Rule three was that she had to accept the cheapest accommodations that she could find, at least the cheapest that offered an acceptable level of safety and privacy (pg. …show more content…
While there, she first began staying in Motel 6 which charged $59 a night (having a bed, TV, a phone, and a really unrestricted view of Route 25) (pg.34). Only until she found a normal job and a home. So she begins the job and home search at the same time, and finds out that there are no apartments in Portland. Actually, there are plenty of condos and "executive apartments" for $1,000 a month or more, but the only low rent options seem to be clustered away in an area distant from her (pg. 30). However, she does find a semi-appealing place, the Blue Haven. For $120.00 a week she had a bed/living area with a kitchen growing off of it, linens included, and a TV that would have cable until the cable company notices that the former occupant is no longer paying the bill. Better yet the security deposit is only $100.00 which she produces on the spot (pg.36). But once moving in, she realized that her new home was smaller than she recalled. For one thing, the tool shed used by the motel corner take up part of her cottage space, and this leads to a certain unfortunate blending of biological functions. With the toilet less than four feet from the tiny kitchen table she has to close the bathroom door or she feel likes she is eating in a latrine, and the fact
She blames capitalism for the injustices of the world, slightly more than easy bad management techniques. A company should be shown that would benefit from a union and it will be shown to all around that one that will promote even better from decent, gentle management decisions. Most irritating, she’s constantly negative about the whole lot, even the positive experiences she has. When one of her colleagues offers to allow her move in with her and her family, not only does Ehrenreich turn the proposal down, but she still describes it sneeringly as a "touched by an angel moment." Does she have to dribble with irony when writing about an authentic type deed?
The invisible workforce consists of the low-wage workers that face harsh working conditions, a few or no benefits, and long hours of labor that exceed the regular business week. Barbara Ehrenreich, narrates her experience of entering the service workforce, in the book Nickel and Dimed. She proves that getting by in America working a minimum wage job is impossible. Although, the book was written in the 1990’s, the conditions in which minimum wage workers lived still prevail today. Minimum wage no longer serves its original purpose of providing a living wage for the invisible workforce.
David K. Shipler in his essay At the Edge of Poverty talks about the forgotten America. He tries to make the readers feel how hard is to live at the edge of poverty in America. Shipler states “Poverty, then, does not lend itself to easy definition” (252). He lays emphasis on the fact that there is no single universal definition of poverty. In fact poverty is a widespread concept with different dimensions; every person, country or culture has its own definition for poverty and its own definition of a comfortable life.
There are several inconsistencies about the situations that Ehrenreich placed herself in and the real li...
Barbara Ehrenreich, started her socioeconomic experiment in Key West, Florida. Her initial effort is to secure a place to live and a job that will support her. In the beginning, Ehrenreich finds that applying for low wage jobs can be a daunting task. Eventually, she finds work as a waitress at a local restaurant. The author discovers that the work is physically and mentally challenging. Ehrenreich develops a distaste for management while working at the establishment. She watches management sit around and treat employees poorly. Management does not value their workforce and routinely show a lack of compassion for their employees. Additionally, Ehrenreich uncovers an economic condition that the working poor face. The dilemma is if the working poor cannot make enough money for a security deposit for an apartment, then they are forced to live in crappy hotels. This enlightens another socioeconomic issue, nutritious food. Most hotel rooms do not have kitchenettes in which food can be prepared. This perpetuates many working poor going to fast food establishments to eat. Without health insurance, this can provide more health issues for low wage workers.
According to a 1997 report of the National Coalition for the Homeless, “nearly one-fifth of all homeless people are employed in full or part-time jobs”. In the book Nickel and Dimed, On Not Getting by in America, by Barbara Ehrenreich, the author goes undercover in order to investigate and experience first-hand how life is for America’s “working poor”. The “working poor” are defined as individuals who have a full-time job, sometimes more than one, but still cannot afford the basics of shelter, food and adequate healthcare. As one can imagine, this led to many public health concerns. In each of the three locations visited, Ehrenreich realizes that for many, “getting by” in America can sometimes be a daunting task.
The narrator begins the story by recounting how she speculates there may be something wrong with the mansion they will be living in for three months. According to her the price of rent was way too cheap and she even goes on to describe it as “queer”. However she is quickly laughed at and dismissed by her husband who as she puts it “is practical in the extreme.” As the story continues the reader learns that the narrator is thought to be sick by her husband John yet she is not as convinced as him. According
Through this, the reader understands that the author has an advanced amount of knowledge on the subject she will be covering throughout the novel. Feeling as if there will be no need to question her findings or conclusions (due to her vast educational background and the research she put in), the audience is much more susceptible and therefore predisposed to Ehrenreich’s arguments, making it easier for her to make her case.
In the article The American Dream: Slipping Away? by Susan Neuman I found many things interesting to read, some even shocking. When Neuman speaks about a study done that found that middle and upper middle class families use a child-rearing strategy called concerted cultivation while working-class and poor parents use the strategy of natural growth, I realized that my mother definitely used natural growth. Neuman states, “These parents generally have less education and time to impress on their children the values that will give them an advantage in school. Their children often spend less time in the company of adults and more time with other children in self-directed, open-ended play” (pp. 166).
Why should we be the ones to pay for someone to sit around at home? The answer is one simple word, welfare. There are many reasons why people mooch on welfare, rather than going out and working. The only jobs these people are qualified for are minimum wage jobs. As Barbara Ehrenreich, author of Nickel and Dimed, worked at minimum wage paying jobs and reported the hardships that people had to go through on a day-to-day basis. A critic responded by saying, “This is simply the case of an academic who is forced to get a real job…” Ehrenriech’s reasoning for joining the working-class is to report why people who mite be on welfare, continue to stay on welfare. Her reports show there are many hardships that go along with minimum waged jobs, in the areas of drug abuse, fatigue, the idea of invisibility, education and the American Dream.
The juxtaposed contrasts that she often uses are seen explicitly in anecdotes or implicitly in conscious thoughts. Such contrasts first appear in the first paragraph. Even before Ehrenreich makes any substantial effort to join the poor working class, she is hit with this sudden unease of being recognized. At that time, it is clear that she has not relinquished her middle class status since she feels ashamed of being identified as a poor worker. In the world that the author originally belongs to, name and reputation are considered important to one’s standing in society yet in the working class realm, as Ehrenreich later finds out, one is often “unnoticed” and names are “unuttered.” Not only are names forgotten but one’s ability and education are also ignored when looking for jobs. Oblivious to the “rule” for hiring for unskilled jobs, Ehrenreich initially worries about her over-qualification but only to be shocked when she realizes the employers are not even interested. Whereas jobs for the middle class often demand higher education and past accomplishments, jobs for the low-wage workforce are simply depended simply on luck or as Ehrenreich claims “ being in the right place at the right time.” One can convey this as part of a corporate scheme to ensure the
In the Working Poor, David Shipler shows the different levels of poverty in the United States. Although many people work every day they still do not have enough money to live their lives comfortably or contently. In chapter 1, Money and Its Opposite, discuss the different people that worked hard their entire lives only to remain in or below the poverty line. For instance, in the book Shipler speaks of the disadvantages that the working poor are susceptible to. Often being taken advantage of from employers that do not give accesses that they are entitled to, the working poor are more likely to be audit than the wealthy, and become victims of cons that point toward money for a small payment, first. The many that live in poverty often overspend.
The biggest appeal that Ehrenreich makes is after she ends up walking out of the housekeeping job/waitress job because she cannot handle it anymore." I have failed I don't cry, but I am in a position to realize, for the first time in many years, that the tear ducts are still there and still capable of doing their job." (Ehrenreich, 48) This is the biggest appeal because Ehrenreich is quitting on the whole project. She is basically telling the readers that it is impossible for her, a "well-off", woman to live the life of a low wage worker.
In this book, Ehrenreich tries to work in three different places to see what it is like to work as a minimum wage worker. Ehrenreich worked as a server in Florida, housekeeper in Miami, and sales person in Minnesota, and still she didn’t make enough money to live comfortable. As she says, “Something is wrong, very wrong, when a single person in good health, a person who in addition possesses a working car, can barely support herself by the sweat of her brow. You don’t need a degree in economics to see that wages are too low and rent too high”(Ehrereich’s 199). She notices how hard it is for poor people to try to survive when they have to work with a minimum
Like most people whom conduct experiments, Ehrenreich must first establish credibility of her knowledge of this subject. She does this in her introduction in numerous ways. Ehrenreich comes out saying that she has a Ph.D in biology but has a fancy for writing. She starts off with her exposure to low wage paying jobs by using her sister and her husband a companion for over a decade. Her sister, who use to work for the phone company as a sales representative, a factory work and receptionist who described it her experiences as “the hopelessness of being a wage slave”. Her husband use to work for $4.50 an hour in a warehouse before he was fortunate enough to land a good paying job with the union workers the Teamsters.