Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich

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The chapter, Selling in Minnesota, had some disturbing information about the low wage life. As I read, I learned that every place the author went to apply, such as a Wal-Mart and a Home Depot type place called Menards, required the applicant to pass a drug test. The author went out and had to buy detox for $30, but can be up to $60. Also, I learn that 81% of employers do drug test their future employees. I don’t like this statistic, in part because I tried getting a job at Marshall Field’s restaurant and they required me to pass a drug test. Luckily, another employer called me before my scheduled drug screening (which I had planned on passing by being really sneaky and using the urine of a friend of mine), so I took that job offer and everything worked out well. The reason I don’t agree with the drug testing required to access most entry-level jobs, is because the only drugs they actually test for is Marijuana. Cocaine and heroine leave the body within three days, and other drugs aren’t even tested for. So that leaves the most commonly used illicit drug, and one that has the least affect on the user, to be tested for.

When the author first moved to Minnesota, she lived in a friend of a friend’s apartment until she could find another apartment. The friend is out of town and required that the author takes care of her canary in order for her to stay there. The bird, which the author comes to call Budgie, is really annoying and has to be let out of its cage a few times or otherwise it will go crazy in the cage. The author looks extremely had to find an apartment to stay at. Apparently, there is only a less than 1% apartment vacancy in Minnesota. Also, the only apartments that are available are defiantly not accessible to entry-level employees, offering hot tubs and over $1000 a month payments.

One of the places that the author tried to get a job at required that the employee had lived in Minnesota for at least one year.

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