this is the book that I was telling you a while back that they or trying to banned this book in one of the schools.
Just a little reading here ,to get the idea whats going on.


A, 2007
By Gagewyn (United States) - See all my reviewsThis review is from: Nickel and Dimed: Undercover in Low-wage America (Paperback)
Nickeled and Dimed has an interesting premise: an upper middle class woman tries to live on wages of an unskilled jobs in three different locations in the US. Here Ehrenreich describes her experiences doing just that and tries to relate these experiences to a larger frame of reference by laying out statistics about the US.

From having done this and that over the summers while in college and having spent the past year earning 3.85/hour plus room and board I can sort of compare my experiences in accessing Ehrenreich's book. Two things that made Ehrenreich's experiences harder than they probably would be for a person who was living the life that she was trying to visit are that she moved around frequently and she wasn't as frugal a shopper as she could have been. The moving around means that she was always starting fresh. From my experience after about 2 months in a city I know where to go for this and that and my expenses drop. Also she wasn't the most frugal person. When she had to get khaki pants on short notice for a waitressing job, she spent 40$ on pants with a stain from a discount store. In Florida (the same state) at about the same time I had to get khaki pants on short notice and found them for 15$. I'm kind if fat and so there was less of a selection for me than for someone in a more common size. I doubt that normal people in such jobs would spend 40$ on pants. 15$ felt like alot to me. From Ehrenreich's description she didn't bat an eye at 40$

Ehrenrich's descriptions of co-worker's plights are more realistic. While it isn't so hard to get by at poverty level (unless you get sick like missing work sick) I have trouble imagining how to raise a family on minimum wage. Descriptions of co-workers whose food budget was tiny are common. I kind of wonder how these people felt about being quizzed. I feel that there was too much focus on rent and food. These are big expenses but they are predictable. Once one finds a way to make ends meet that's stable at least.

One aspect of being poor that I feel was neglected was the lack of medical care. Insurance coverage is expensive and if it doesn't come with the job then that is a big budgeting item. Also jobs without benefits are the one that pay less. Also the difficulty in getting sit down work if one gets injured is a huge issue. Ehrenreich kind of touches on these with statistics and concern for a co-worker with a sprained ankle respectively, but she spends most of her time discussing how the nations poor can't buy food or make rent and trying to make poverty an immediate life or death issue. For me poverty is about not having a safety net.

When I was working for 3.85 and room and board (no benefits at all) I had a co-worker with higher pay use this book to explain how easy I had it. At the time I was trying to scrape together enough for a dental visit and pay some work related expenses. (I had switched jobs and underestimated the fees for work related training and equipment.) She was angry that I was having trouble getting cash together because that reflected badly on the company. Which brings me to a point: Everyday you are in contact with someone who is living at poverty level. Because they shower and know how to get by you may not realize this. The starving limping people Ehrenreich describes aren't common, but that shouldn't be used to undercut the problems faced by poor people who are not in an emergency state right now. It seems to me that many of the people I know who have read this book have strange ideas about the poor to begin with. So if you haven't been poor for a while then don't make this your only source for info about it.

I reccommend Nikeled and Dimed, but take it with a grain of salt. Ehrenreich is a tourist of poverty and has a shallow impression not a deep understanding of the issues. Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
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14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars An entertaining read, but not REALISTIC!, August 30, 2009
By Tax Writer "Tax Accountant" (Maui) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER) This review is from: Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America (Paperback)
I read this entire book in one sitting, because it really is well-written and funny. I laughed out loud when she described a busser sucking "deliriously on an imaginary crack-pipe" when he was making fun of a particularly weasel-like manager.

I think it's worth the purchase price, but the premise is not good. I know that the author is making a social commentary, but I know what it's like to make a lot of money, and I also know what it's like to live on $9,000 per year (in California, no less).

When I was in my 20s, I was DIRT poor, worked two jobs (sometimes three), and I lived off of $25 of food per week. I even remember exactly what I bought. 4-pound bags of spaghetti, Top Ramen by the truckload (7 cents a pack back then), and giant cans of pasta sauce (about 99 cents for a can, which I saved in a margarine tub and used throughout the week). I had one saucepot, and I bought my work pants at thrift stores. In fact, I bought all my clothes (except for shoes) at used clothing stores. I drank Kool-aid (10 cents a pack) with very little sugar, or, if I was really going to splurge, I bought Crystal Light and made a gallon and a half out of a little tub that was supposed to be for 2 quarts.

Let's just say I wasn't very healthy back then. But I made it and put myself through school (without loans). I didn't own a car and I always had roommates. I think the author's issues with housing have more to do with the fact that she was unwilling to live with someone else. When you're poor, that's not realistic.

I think that the biggest social commentary (that the author missed) was the way that poor people FEEL. The ones that are stuck in that cycle of poverty always feel hopeless. They never feel like there's something better out there. They don't want to go to school, even though there are Junior College training programs that would be free to them. I think it's more an issue of self-esteem than anything else. If you feel like a worthless person, then that is the reality that you create. It's more damaging than anything else. That's the REAL tragedy here. That these men and women at the bottom feel like they should remain where they are.

Even when I was scraping by and living in the dirtiest slum apartment on earth (a broken bedroom window patched by duct-tape and there were dead cockroaches in the bathtub every morning), I never felt like that was where I was going to stay.

Conclusion: This book is worth reading, it's very well-written and the author makes some very funny observations. But read between the lines.


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59 of 78 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Everyone should read this., March 13, 2006
By Warlock One (Portland OR) - See all my reviewsThis review is from: Nickel and Dimed: Undercover in Low-wage America (Paperback)
It should be noted that this book is not, nor does it claim to be, a definitive and expansive report on the plight of the working poor. It functions as a personal memoir and a slice-of-life, an undercover view of a life that is intentionally made invisible to most members of the middle-to-upper classes.

And the view it offers is harrowing.

Ehrenreich allows herself a safety net not available to many of the places she lives among, including a car and a way out if things become threatening to her basic safety. That despite these allowances she finds it difficult to survive causes one to truly wonder about those who, for example, have to rely on systems of public transportation.

Her co-workers live in hotels and trailers, unable to make the first and last month plus deposit that would allow them to move into more cost-efficient, safe, and comfortable housing on their hand-to-mouth wages. This effects everything else in their lives: how close they are able to live to their workplaces is dictated by economy, which in turn effects the time and cost of their commute and how much sleep they can often expect to get in a night. The lack of a stove or refrigerator means they lack nutritious food and are forced to live on overpriced fast foods and processed foods, often on the edge of starvation.

Yes, Ehrenreich is an educated liberal. No, she doesn't miraculously come up with easy solutions. Given the material, she shouldn't have to apologize to anyone with a conservative bias for either of these facts. The information she gives has not been covered at this level and in this detail anywhere else, and that alone is commendable. "Nickel & Dimed" allows the realities of the invisible people who handle our food, clean our homes, and ring up our purchases to be brought to the attention of those who might want to look away. Help other customers find the most helpful reviews >