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  • Nickel and Dimed

  • This was a really interesting read. I did learn a lot, although much of the time I found the author's overall attitude highly annoying. Regardless, I will never look at the people in these low wage jobs the same way as I did before. And I will NEVER, EVER hire a cleaning service to clean my home! (y ... Continue

    This was a really interesting read. I did learn a lot, although much of the time I found the author's overall attitude highly annoying. Regardless, I will never look at the people in these low wage jobs the same way as I did before. And I will NEVER, EVER hire a cleaning service to clean my home! (yuck!)

    

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• ― Readingrat said on Nov 26, 2007 | Add your feedback

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  • America, where your dreams come true? Blah.

    In fact, the phenomenon described in this book is a general occurrence in most developed and developing countries. Our society, it seems, is going back to the medieval way, where whose child you are matters a lot more than what you are capable of. ... Continue

    America, where your dreams come true? Blah.

    In fact, the phenomenon described in this book is a general occurrence in most developed and developing countries. Our society, it seems, is going back to the medieval way, where whose child you are matters a lot more than what you are capable of. Gone are the days when you can work your way up the social ladder purely by the combination of your talent/hard work.

    Somehow people from the older generation don't appreciate this change. I still have these debates/arguments with my father occasionally; he thinks the youth today are far less motivated and quite underachieving. Well, including myself. But the way I view it, it is simply much harder to achieve the same magnitude of success now.

    Should quit my own complaining here. Let's just say that the author has provided me with some very strong support for my argument. Read the book, and you will be amazed how much America today is different from the old perceived "land of opportunity".

    BTW, it is also very interesting to compare this book with "My Freshman Year" by Rebekah Nathan, which is also an "undercover" type book, written by an anthropologist. Just to see how many academic taboos Nathan avoided at all cost were broken by the journalist Ehrenreich.

    

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• ― pthow said on Apr 8, 2007 | Add your feedback

Millions of Americans work for poverty-level wages, and one day Barbara Ehrenreich decided to join them. She was inspired in part by the rhetoric surrounding welfare reform, which promised that any job equals a better life. But how can anyone survive, let alone prosper, on $6 to $7 an hour? To find out, Ehrenreich moved from Florida to Maine to Minnesota, taking the cheapest lodgings available and accepting work as a waitress, hotel maid, house cleaner, nursing-home aide, and Wal-Mart salesperson. She soon discovered that even the lowliest occupations require exhausting mental and physical efforts. And one job is not enough; you need at least two if you intend to live indoors.Nickel and Dimed reveals low-wage America in all its tenacity, anxiety, and surprising generositya land of Big Boxes, fast food, and a thousand desperate strategies for survival. Instantly acclaimed for its insight, humor, and passion, this book is changing the way America perceives its working poor.

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