Nickel and Dimed, Term Paper Example

Introduction

Barbara Ehrenreich is the author of Nickel and Dimed a best-selling non-fiction story which depicts how low wage earning people struggle to make ends meet from month to month. The author went undercover in three different states, Florida, Maine and Minnesota as a low wage earner living only on her earnings for one month in each state to determine if she could survive on such low wages. She left behind her check book, ATM Card, credit cards and all other forms of money except only brining a budget of $500-600 for rent and an anticipated plan to earn $7.00 an hour to keep her abreast for the month.  The book is divided into three sections addressing each geographical area and how the author worked undercover at the low wage job and struggled to find suitable and affordable housing to survive.

Relationship between Characters

This book is a write-up of primary research conducted by the author of the book, Ehrenreich. Her approach to the writings is as a researcher and an author. She reveals to her closest companions at work of her real purpose and finds it surprising that they show no real interest in her work or her reason for leaving the employment. The author used her real name when applying for low wage jobs but never revealed her PhD education on applications. BJ was a manager at the restaurant Ehrenreich first was employed at in Key West, Florida. Ted is the manager of The Maids in Maine and attempts to get Ehrenreich to inform him of complaining employees. Holly works as a maid with Ehrenreich in Maine. Marge works as a maid with Ehenreich in Maine and regularly works with another employee named Holly. Melissa works with Ehenreich in Minneapolis at the Wal-Mart sorting clothing. Howard is the assistant manager at the Wal-Mart in Minneapolis and is in charge of emergency preparation meetings and has advised the employees not to communicate with each other while on the job.

Overview of Book

The author was concerned about being overqualified for the waitress position in Key West, Florida, however found herself almost under qualified because the job was extremely physically demanding and she had no prior experience as such. She is only able to find a trailer to live in on her salary and has to take a second income at an adjoining hotel to supplement her income to pay her rent and food. Her employment commences at a waitress position for $2.43 an hour plus tips. There is an employee cursing vulgarity the first day of work as she enters through the kitchen area. The author was not able to afford air conditioning and cable nor television. Later she opted for an efficiency of $500 a month. The job was physically and emotionally demanding and reminded her of the long and hard work during her college years. Further she quit the job after only two weeks rather than four weeks and felt she would not be able to meet the next month’s rent.

Next the author chose Portland, Maine to work a low wage job thinking she would be better suited to blend in with the low wage Caucasian workers in the city. She accepted employment as a maid during the day and as a dietary nursing aide on weekends. She ate chips with the other low wage workers for lunch because most people on low income cannot afford to go out for a proper lunch and often there is not much time to eat a brown bag lunch at work. When Ehrenreich reveals her true reason for having and leaving this job the workers do not express much resentment or care.

Ehenreich was not able for find an apartment in Minneapolis. The vacancy rate was under 2%. The hotels that rented rooms by the week or month were also full hence she had to rent a very low standard motel room with no locks on the door and keep her computer with her under her pillow at all times. Later she was able to find an extended stay hotel with a kitchenette inside the room. She finds a job at the local Wal-Mart in the clothing department and begins to implement the idea of unionism into the minds of the workers. An employee Melissa becomes very close to Ehenreich and quits also when Ehenreich leaves Wal-Mart at the end of her research.

Evaluation of the Book

The objective of the author was to subjectively experience poverty from the inside and write about her experiences to inform the public. The author describes all three of the jobs as being emotionally and physically challenging. There are not many low income housing units available in the city hence low income workers are forced to either live outside the city limits or forced to live in efficiency units inside the city to be able to survive from month to month. She further believed that the no communication policy at some jobs was in force to keep workers from assembling together to ask for higher wages through forces such as unions. Low wages are kept in force by keeping the mentality of low self-esteem in the workers. The book is detailed very well to clearly explain how each position illustrated emphasis on low-self esteem contribution to low-wage, management total control of workers and how low wage workers encounter daily struggles simply to meet low standards of living. This clear investigative journalism peers into modern life of the working poor and concentrates on how they are underrepresented and overlooked. The poor often cannot afford to get dental work or medical attention. “Something is wrong, very wrong, when a single person in good health, a person who in addition possesses a working car, can barely support herself by the sweat of her brow. You don’t need a degree in economics to see that wages are too low and rents too high. The problem of rents is easy for a non-economist, even a sparsely educated low-wage worker, to grasp: it’s the market, stupid. When the rich and the poor compete for housing on the open market, the poor don’t stand a chance.” (Ehenreich 199). Does this suggest that there needs to be reform in the government for minimum wages? It most certainly does! Also there needs to be form in Equal Housing for all! The poor cannot even meet the minimum requirements to rent suitable housing with the levels of income they are presently receiving. “There seems to be a vicious cycle at work here, making ours not just an economy but a culture of extreme inequality. Corporate decision makers, and even some two-bit entrepreneurs like my boss at The Maids, occupy an economic position miles above that of the underpaid people whose labour they depend on. For reasons that have more to do with class — and often racial — prejudice than with actual experience, they tend to fear and distrust the category of people from which they recruit their workers. Hence the perceived need for repressive management and intrusive measures like drug and personality testing.” (Ehenreich 212).

Conclusion

The author makes a great effort to get into the life of the poor and share her experiences with the readers. However, she only gets into the work life and does not share any of their other aspects of life that affect their poverty levels such as health and activities in their social life. Who cares if she is a PhD writer! That does not make her an expert on the poor. Some readers state that until they read this book they never realized they were living a low to middle aged earning life and until one actually lives within all realms of that life they cannot truly describe it to another. The author has given effort that is greatly appreciated but the effort is not true evidence. There is nothing in her text that valid economic reports could not reveal to a reader. It would be better if she could have suggested how to make the lives of the poor a little easier through her efforts spent with them. She is certainly commended for her idea to live in the shoes of the poor however if she wishes to write a book on the research she should really consider compiling the research in an analytical methodology and more complete method. It is quite arguable whether she captures the entire experience as a poor low wage worker in only a month at each location and by only having minimal working experience with the employees.

References

Ehrenreich, B. Nickel and Dimed: Getting by in America New York, NY: Henry Holt and Company, 2001