Nickel And Dimed Essay

The introduction of the book “Nickel and Dimed” by Barbara Ehrenreich, it talks about where Barbara and the editor, Lewis Lapham discovered the idea of this book. The two were having a lunch at an expensive restaurant and Ehrenreich concern was how people with low job skilled are able to make living with small income. Her primary concerned was towards women who are about to be on job hunt because of the reformation of the government welfare. Ehrenreich stated that she could not see herself going through this. She even mentioned how her fellow college student were seeking for jobs in the 1960s just to be part of the working class, and even some family were surviving off low wages however she was never interested doing them tasks. Since she has Ph.D. in biology, Ehrenreich established a scientific approach to create some limitations while going undercover as an unwell educated, divorce, and a lower person of who she really is. She going

against her will here to find out of these people, mainly women who are surviving of low-wages. It is hard to match some of these repercussions especially when you not accustom to living in related situations. For instance, in her experiment she point out some rules and limitation for herself but even the willingness to make it through, she did not follow all of her rules and guidelines because it was very difficult for her.
In the first chapter of the book, Ehrenreich started to realize what iis like to survive off low wage.

She started her investigation in a small town called Key West in Florida where quickly find a apartment for $500 per month. She started to file job application which require many unimportant questions to answers and they requirement that needs to be completed before you are officially hired. Now this process could be very diffivlut for someone who has never been through this before. Someone like Ehrenreich was will find this road very hard because she never have to do that. Although it is interesting how she was able to go against her will to find out what these people have to do deal with. She finds work at a restaurant as a waitress where she will have to work from 2:00pm to 10:00pm for $2.43 per hour. She quickly became to know that there is really no difference of being a fake waitress and a real one. She experience the tiredness and deprivation waitress go through after standing and walking back and forth all

day.
One thing that reels my attention this chapter is when author talks about she find out that if you cannot pay a security deposit for apartment you probably will not get the apartment and will force to live in a hotel. If you have to pay to stay in a hotel you will not have kitchen to cook a healthy meal, if you are force buy cheap food all the time it may cause some health issues. This something that has been a ongoing issue. The majority of who survive off low income tend to have problems when they are trying to find a place to live because many residential places will not let you move If you are unbale to pay security deposit. I witnessed some family members going through this and I will never wanted to be their shoes. I also believe many health problems people tend to face today is cause by the food they eat. This tend to happen to individuals who cannot afford healthy nutrtitons.
After working at Heathers for few weeks Ehrenreich came to conclusion that she need a second job. She finds a waitress job at another restaurant called, Jerry’s. Unlike Heather’s, her second job was not a clean place and employees are not to take breaks, the place was a mess.