Rating: 
Summary: Nickel and Dimed
Review: In the memoir/exposé, Ehrenreich uncovers the world of the many men, women and children living on or below the poverty line. By posing as a waitress, maid and nursing assistant, she attempts to live the life of the working poor. Each month of her experiment, three months in all, Ehrenreich allows herself $1000 "start-up" cash and aims to earn enough money within the month time limit to tide herself over should she remain another month. In two out of three times she was barely able to do this and felt sure that she would not be able to continue in the same capacity. On her last attempt she fails to reach her month's saving goals and abandons the project once and for all. Along the way she meets many women in her same line of work, holding two or even three jobs while trying to find affordable, convenient housing and feasible care for their varying amounts of children.
Ehrenreich succeeds completely in exposing the dark world of the "working poor". She sets up the perfect arguments for the pro living and working wage movement, without that necessarily having ever been her goal. Ultimately, this book forces the reader to see what we often choose not to: hundreds of thousands of people who thought that hard work and determination equal a good life and are currently living in the squalor of trailer parks and motels, with more expenditures than they can ever hope to afford. Indeed, it Ehrenreich shows the ineffectiveness of government aid and the impossibility for the betterment of these people while conditions remain the same. Most of them will probably never see the inside of a classroom or have an opportunity to improve their situation. There just are not enough hours in the day.
An excellent read and excellent choice for all!
Rating: 
Summary: More money, less work
Review: This book is very informative. I think that many people should read it because it makes you understand how much effort a low-wage person have to go through to keep on living a reasonable life. While people that have a lot of time on there hand and making fun of their jobs and their living conditions, they should think how much they do work to mantain their families in good health and keep food on their tables. I think that everyone should really think about other people than just themselves. I recommend this work to everyone.
Rating:
Summary: Genius Book
Review: This book opened my eyes to so many things I didn't know. It has convinced me that our would is in need of some kind of huge social change. I felt so sorry for each struggling person that Ehrenreich met along her journey, but also angry at our very unfair world. I think that everyone should read this book and discover for themselves the truth and pain of low-wage America.
Rating:
Summary: USA should increase the Minimum Wage to at least $7 asap!
Review: I regularly work in the USA, and when I mentioned this book to 10 or so US colleagues over dinner in Minneapolis, only 1 person had heard of it, which exemplifies the fact that Middle Class America have little consciousness of the realities of the 'slaving classes'.
This book does not go into a detailed damnation of the 'system' in the way that 'No Logo' does, but it offers well-written personal recollections of times spent in 3 locations, Florida, Maine & Minneapolis (hence why I asked my dinner companions if they'd heard of it).
Even though I consider myself 'socially aware' it gave me further insight into the circumstances of those around me in hotels & restaurants, and reconfirmed my already low opinion of the inequalities in US society.
I believe that the US Federal Minimum Wage is $5.15, and hasn't been changed for 6 years (ie since 1997)?; contrast that with the UK Minimum Wage which has been increased every year since its introduction, even if only by 10p/15c per hour, and this last month (October 2003) went up by 7% (30p/50c per hour) to around $7.50.
We also have a legal minimum of 20 days Vacation per annum (with 30 being more typical), max working week of 48 hours (with 35-40 being more typical), Sick Leave of 28 weeks (yes weeks, not days) per annum, with a minimum of $20 per day Sick Pay, and in case you think this generosity wrecks the economy, we have a Lower rate of Unemployment than the USA, and also a Lower rate of Inflation than the USA.
Rating:
Summary: Enjoyable book, but with a couple of warts
Review: Barbara's tales of her experiences in the low-wage world were quite interesting to me. Particularly, the process of gaining employment told me things that I did not know. The psychological profiling tests are something that I have not encountered, even though I earned some quite low wages in my youth. It was clear that the hiring companies were trying to address the problems of bad behavior among employees with the attempts at total mind control attempted in these tests. Good goals, but bad execution.As I read through the book, I became more and more frustrated with Ms. Ehrenreich's anti-Christian hostility. Seemingly out-of-the-blue, she would begin these tangential, non-sequitur attacks on Christianity. The link between these pathological attacks and the story line were weak or non-existant. While I enjoyed the main story, these irritating asides were like cockroaches in my casserole, and I wish she had the self-control to voice her tangential peeves elsewhere. Barbara's insecurities were also evident in her frequent reminders that she was only pretending to be a low wage worker. The reminders took the form of consultations with her dematologist for a rash, and the use of "50-cent" words like "glossolalia". She really didn't want us to forget that she was better than her temporary environment. Those criticisms aside, the book did open my eyes to the situation with people like the Wal-Mart workers. Hers is not the first thing I have read that speaks ill of the way that they are paid and treated. This book has me reconsidering my shopping habits. Low prices are great, but not when the discounts are sucked out of poor workers. I think something was lost by Barbara retaining her car. That is a major cost item for most low-wage earners, and it detracts from the validity of her experience to retain such a large advantage. Her choice to become a maid and a retirement center worker were good ones. Both of those jobs give a very blunt introduction to a life of difficulty. These portions of the book were the ones that interested me the most. Long hours and bodily aches are something I have experienced, and what she described sounded very real. These were very revealing. Overall, the book is one I enjoyed. I'm glad that I read it. If she had removed the big, hairy wart of her anti-Christian hostility, I might have actually recommended this book to others.
Rating:
Summary: Nickel and Dimed
Review: I think that Nickel and Dimed is a well-written, good book. It points out the problems in today's society concerning poverty and how people are forced to deal with low wages and high rent day to day. I agree with Ehrenreich that this is a huge problem and that something has to be done. I am glad that authors like her are not afraid to point out the problems with society. I believe that the more people who speak their minds, the more society will change its views. This book does an excellent job in pointing out today's issues with poverty in an attempt to change people's views.
Rating: 
Summary: Interesting, but Not Very Effective
Review: I just finished "Nickel and Dimed" by Barbara Ehrenreich, and it was an okay book, but not as good as I'd hoped. The ads and reviews on it made it sound like a groundbreaking work on the 'reality of living at minimum wage,' but it really wasn't. The majority of the book is a series of anecdotes--one per chapter--of how she lived for a month in a given location and tried to find food, housing, and basic necessities while working at a low-wage job. ("My 24 Hours in Wolfland") Sounds like an interesting experiment, right? But it's really just one-sided war stories, and the whole thing comes off as too artificial to carry any real weight. To her credit, Ehrenreich acknowledges that her experience was not a "real" one--after all, she always knew she could go back to her cushy white-collar life any time she wanted--, and she even notes that she had several advantages not available to most working-class types: race, education, good health, no dependents, and so on. The implicit conclusion is supposed to be that if SHE had it so tough making ends meet (even with all her advantages of being a white, educated, English-speaking woman in good health with no kids), then imagine how much worse things have to be for everyone else in those positions. It makes an okay point in that direction, halfheartedly, but her "experiment" is just so flawed that you can't attach any real meaning to it. Yes, her experience is skewed, but not just in one direction. For example, Ehrenreich lives for exactly one month in each location. Not long enough to establish any ties, a network of friends, a support group, nothing. She doesn't run into any typical "emergency expense" situations that would be bound to occur over periods longer than a month--medical expenses and car repairs being two obvious examples. She has no dependents, but also no roommate or live-in partner to share expenses and "cover" for each other's schedules. And so on. Reading through her adventures, I couldn't shake the impression of a pith-helmeted British explorer on safari in India. She was immersed in the environment of blue-collar/minimum-wage living, but she remained apart from it in all the most important ways. Despite being hip-deep in the setting, she was still on the outside looking in. The concluding chapter was also a surprise... it had no real conclusions. The ending was quite abrupt, amounting to little more than "Hopefully, things will change. The End." If you like immersing yourself in someone else's storytelling style and getting short glimpses of a parade of minor characters, this is an okay book. If you're looking for dramatic revelations and important conclusions about our society, I'm afraid you'll have to go elsewhere. This is more travelogue than expose'.
Rating:
Summary: nickel and dimed
Review: In my personal opinion Nickel and Dimed was a well-written book .The book is worth reading it especially for the ones who doesn't know how to handle money in life. The book gives some information about the way money is handled in life. After I finished reading the book, I just realized that nothing changed; I mean employers are still getting a low wage. It's not that I didn't like the book but I think we should put some of our thoughts in action. However, I definitely agree what Ehrenreich highlights in her book that on getting nothing in America, which is really hard to survive in life, if we do have a low wage jobs. I really enjoyed reading the book and Ehrenreich really did a good job on it because nobody who lives a life of luxury will challenge in a situation like this.
Rating:
Summary: Eye Opening Look at the Poor
Review: This is the saddening story of a middle class person's attempt to "live poor." The author gives up her normal life to try to make it on the wages that most poor people make while trying to live in the type of housing that the poor are forced to live in. She does this three times in three different places. Each time she fails (or concludes that one could not get ahead). The problems she encounters include finding affordable housing, paying for food and clothing, and finally paying for healthcare (even if it is over the counter stuff). She finds the ordeal very trying and needs to "cheat" a couple of times by going back to her real home for a night. The fact that an educated person with every advantage couldn't make it, is a very stong statement as to how difficult the poor in this country have it. I don't think this book is meant to speak for the poor, rather I think it is meant to give the middle class a glance into how difficult the poor have today. If nothing else this book might help dispel some of the typical stereotypes about the poor.
Rating: 
Summary: Witty yet lacking, in fact quite disturbing
Review: I was very excited to read this book, but I must admit, the whole concept is very misrepresented. I thought I would be reading a down and dirty tale of how people make it (i.e. reading about their emotions, their war stories, their fears, their life style, etc.) It's one thing to throw on a Hawaiian shirt and flip flops and be able to fit in at a Luau themed party. However, it's another to pretend to be poor. Does the author really expect us to take her word because she walked in these people's shoes for a little over 2 months? She treats being poor like a summer fling, or better yet, a summer job. Being poor isn't an experiment. In some cases, the shell of poverty can be generations thick. The premise is a complete joke. Work a lower wage job and try to keep a budget. Sounds great, but here are all the asteriks: she starts off with a nest egg and functioning car, she barely stays in one place long enough to allow residual expenses (i.e. medical, miscellaneous, car problems, etc.), and lastly, if she gets bored or rubbed the wrong way, she quits. I got news for you lady, if 95% of us had the opportunity (and your case financial backing and real job to fall back on) to quit every time we were bored or rubbed the wrong way, we would. And that goes for people in every tax bracket. The difference is we are living in the real world, not conducting a fun little experiment. We work because we have to work, whether it's for our own well being or for the support of others. I did enjoy the writing and observations (that's the only reason it got 2 stars), but not in the context presented. I found myself laughing out loud on a number of occasions, particularly the restaurant and maid chapters. That being said, I think her approach is the problem. If she would have approached this traditionally and simply interviewed "poor people" then wrote about her observations and their stories, direct from their mouths, I would have given this book 4 or 5 stars. But the fact that she tries to sell this as "look at me, I was poor for 2 months, and now I'm going to tell you how bad it is." If you're looking for a good read by an author who isn't afraid to get dirty and paints all sides of the fence, read "Confederates in the Attic," by Tony Horwitz. Although the subject matters are completely unrelated, it is a great example of investigative journalism that seeks to inform on a state of mind and life style.
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