Can someone really live and prosper in American receiving minimal income? Can someone create a good lifestyle for themselves on just six to seven dollars an hour? In Nickel and Dimed Barbara Ehrenreich goes undercover to find out if it is indeed possible. Giving herself only $1,000 she leaves the lifestyle that she has come accustomed too and goes to join all the people living the low class way of life. Before setting out, she gave herself a list of rules she had to follow so that her experience would be as real as it could be. Her first rule was when looking for a job she couldn't mention the skills she had learned from her education. Second, she had to take the highest paying job that was being offered to her. Third, she had to live in the cheapest accommodation that she could, providing that it was a safe environment. Going hungry and being homeless weren't ever able to be options. She knows she will never truly experience poverty because this is nothing more than a project but she leaves behind her old life and becomes known as a divorced homemaker reentering the workforce after many years. Her main goal is to get enough income to be able to pay for all her expenses and have enough money to pay next months rent. In Chapter One she makes a start in Key West. In this chapter she learns a lot about low-wage-job applications. Each application she fills out has many multi choice questions and later on a urine test. She ends up waiting many days hearing nothing back and then applying for a job waitressing. She's hired and is paid $2.43 and hour plus tips. As days go by she finds herself growing to dislike management noting how she is constantly up and about while those that supervise sit all day. She has to constantly be... ... middle of paper ... ...les she had set for herself but she feels that she did a good job at her project. She was alarmed by the way that some of her co-workers lived and felt that she learned a lot from her experiences. I really enjoyed reading this book. It truly gives you a lot to think about. I'm only in high school which doesn't give me much opportunity right now of getting a good job, even though I'm going to be in need of one since I'm having a baby. This book made me see that I better have a good education to get a good job or I'm not going to be able to take care of myself and a baby. Things have gotten a lot better for people in the work place since this book was written but I know that people are still facing the same problems that she had. In my mind I think having a job is better that not having a job. I'd rather get paid $6 an hour then not have any source of income at all.
The current minimum wage right now in California is $9.00 per hour. The question is, will this be enough for people to pay off their rent and still able to not keep their fridge empty. In the book, "Nickel and Dimed" by Barbara Ehrenreich talks about working as a low wage worker. Barbara describes the environment of the jobs that she had done in a detailed manner. She also explained how most of her coworkers lived with more than one person in order to pay rent. One of her job was working in a nursing home which she got a really low pay to take care of elderly people. In addition to that job, she had another job in order to pay off her rent. Therefore, according to the book an individual may need more than one job or live in a house with more
For her book, Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting by in America, Barbara Ehrenreich, a middle-aged female investigative journalist, assumed the undercover position of a newly divorced housewife returning to work after several years of unemployment. The premise for Ehrenreich to go undercover in this way was due to her belief that a single mother returning to work after years of being on welfare would have a difficult time providing for her family on a low or minimum wage. Her cover story was the closest she could get to that of a welfare mother since she had no children and was not on welfare. During the time she developed the idea for the book, “roughly four million women about to be booted into the labor market by welfare reform” were going to have to survive on a $6 or $7 an hour wage; the wage of the inexperienced and uneducated. This paper will discuss Ehrenreich's approach to the research, her discoveries, and the economic assumptions we can make based on the information presented in her book.
It can be hard to live in high poverty and come out and be highly successful, but the author Wes proves it can be done. I also think this book shows how important it is to make good life choices and to listen more to your parents when growing up, so you don’t stray on the wrong path in life.
She sets out to explore the world that welfare mothers are entered. The point was not so much to become poor as to get a sense of the spectrum of low-wage work that existed-from waitressing to housekeeping. She felt mistreated when it was announced that there has been a report on “drug activity”, as a result, the new employees will be required to be tested, as will the current employees on a random basis. She explained feeling mistreated, “I haven 't been treated this way-lined up in the corridor, threatened with locker searches, peppered with carelessly aimed accusations-since junior high school” (Ehrenreich,286). The other problem is that this job shows no sign of being financially viable. Ehrenreich states that there is no secret economies that nourish the poor, “If you can 't put up the two months’ rent you need to secure an apartment, you end up paying through the nose for a room by the week” (286). On the first day of housekeeping, she is yelled and given nineteen rooms to clean. For four hours without a break she striped and remake the beds. At the end of the experience she explained that she couldn 't hold two jobs and couldn 't make enough money to live on with one as where single mothers with children. She has clarified that she has advantages compare to the long-term
Nickel And Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich. 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.
The American Dream is attainable by each and every one of us. The American Dream is the idea that everyone should have an equal opportunity to achieve success through hard work and determination. Every successful person living today had to work hard for their position. They climb the ranks until they got to where they stand today. Everyone could become successful and live the American dream as long as they work very hard starting at a young age into adulthood and study and perform well in school. They must study for school and get a good education. In the book “Nickel and Dimed”, Barbara is struggling to get along because she is surviving off jobs that require little to no education and experience.
However, she never really experienced the actual life of living in poverty as the majority of people living in poverty experience. Barbara, an educated white women had just that on other people living in poverty, because of the color of her skin and education level that is more often than not restricted from people living in poverty. She was able and more qualified for jobs than other people living amongst the status she was playing. She also was able to more readily seek better benefits than people living in poverty. When she first start her journey in Florida she had a car, a car that in most cases people living in poverty do not have. She was also able to use the internet to find local jobs and available housing in the area that many people living in poverty are restricted from. Another great benefit she had was the luxury of affording a drug detox cleansing her of drugs deemed bad. Many people living in poverty do not have much extra cash laying around much less fifty dollars to afford a detox for prescription drugs. She also had the luxury to afford her prescription drugs, another option that many people living in poverty do not have. Another element that made Barbara’s experience not that genuine was the fact that she was not providing for anybody other than herself. Twenty-two percent of kids under the age of 18 are living below the poverty line (http://npc.umich.edu/poverty/#5) , Barbara did not have to provide for pets or kids which would of changed her experience altogether of living in poverty. Not to belittle Barbara’s experience, but many factors of what life is like living in poverty were not taken into consideration during her
...ause of her set out to do something she was passionate about. She gave her research a chance. Although it took more to authenticate her work, she did that in
...ion. Also, it was expected that if she was to move in together with Kevin, it was her who had to give up her books. She clung to her job at the agency so as not to lose her independence to Kevin who offered to get her a better job and take care of her in the meantime.
She decides if she could earn $7 an hour, then she could afford $500 rent. She found a place to rent 45 minutes away from work. In order to deal with the financial responsibilities, Ehrenreich took to the streets in search for another unskilled job since she did not want to use her car as a place of residence. She continues her experiment in a new environment which took her to Maine since the area is mostly a Caucasian community. When she realized that Portland was just another $6-$7 an hour town, she picked up two jobs to be practical. She began her quest for lodging at Motel 6. After several disappointments searching for a place to lie; she found a cottage for $120 a week and determined to poor cannot compete with the rich in the housing market. Ehrenreich moved to Minnesota to finish her experiment, where she hoped there would be a satisfying harmony between rent and wages. She locates an apartment from a friend lasting a short period until she finds a place to stay on her own. She found housing to be a struggle as there seems to be a shortage of houses; as a result she transitioned herself into a hotel. Her stay at the hotel proved to surpass her estimated expenses despite the fact this was her only safe
She is satisfied with her job currently, she enjoys all the faculty members along with the beautiful spoke about, nice campus. She also told us how much she wants to recommend this job to other people when she retires. Mrs. Hebert told us about how she knows that if she keeps the buildings clean for the students and faculty. They are more likely to be respectful and show respect. Ruth also has a passion for flooring. She loves redoing the floors especially one certain type of flooring. This one special type of flooring is “The terrazzo floor”. Also after she talked about how much she is satisfied with her job and, the respect she receives she added that she also wants to interact more with kids at Gould. Mrs. Hebert would love to have a workshop day where the students of Gould get to see what a day in the life of a faculty member is like. Ruth loves kids and, being around kids all the time she finds a great joy. Mrs. Hebert also often spends a large portion of her time with her grandchildren. She explained how her grandchildren were only 2 and 4 but she does so much with them. Together they do things like crafting and playing. While Ruth was speaking to us and, telling us about her grandchildren you could feel her happiness and how much she loves her
I have only read four books my entire life for school, but this is one is the best I have read. There were numerous things that I learned from the book. The one that hit me the hardest was it's hard to see people living in shame because they can cover it up really well, almost like it doesn’t bother them at all. I grew up in a middle class family and simply didn't understand what it meant to be so broke that you are ashamed to be around people who have money. The thought never crossed my mind, ever.
Deborah is energetic, very sociable and communicates well with the clients, her peers, staff and supervisor in order to solve any problems or challenges as they arise.
Another issue discussed in the movie is the lack of education. Like discussed in the paragraph above you can see that the lack of education is the cause of not getting a stable job. Yet, the education itself cannot be gained without a reasonable income. This was distressing because it seemed to be almost impossible to get a quality education. However in the movie, there was one case where a woman named Rosa got a loan to start a business, and with that income got an education. This
Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America, published in 2001 by Barbara Ehrenreich, is a book about an author who goes undercover and examines lives of the working lower class by living and working in similar conditions. Ehrenreich sets out to learn how people survive off of minimum wage. For her experiment, she applies rules including that she cannot use skills acquired from her education or work during her job search. She also must take the highest-paying job offered to her and try her best to keep it. For her search of a home, she has to take the cheapest she can find. For the experiment, Ehrenreich took on low-wage jobs in three cities: in Florida, Maine, and Minnesota.