Rating: 
Summary: Find out how many Americans really live
Review: This book is a terrific piece of journalism, and Ms. Ehrenreich is a great author. She is a real person, not some stereotyped "limousine liberal" or other right-wing invective. She is a PHD, but comes from a very working class upbringing, which I noticed most of the negative reviewers failed to mention. Another false criticism levied against this book I've seen a lot is that she "condescends" to the people she works with. Not even slightly true. Neither is the bit about her speaking admiringly about the Communists. I guess when you can't criticize a book for any real reason, just make up a lie, huh? Anyway this book should be required reading for all. I think a lot of people really don't appreciate what it's like to poor and stuck - what kinds of things can go wrong, and what can bust a skimpy budget - things like, oh, medical care, transportation, housing, food. Little pittances like that. Barbara E. shows how things can go wrong for the working poor, and that not everyone can make it. This book may make you wonder how our government has the funds necessary to bomb other countries, but not the funds necessary to feed hungry people, or give health care to its own citizens. It sure made me think differently. She's a terrific writer. I really hope to read more of her work, and I'm hoping for another great expose!
Rating:
Summary: The Growing Failure of Capitalism
Review: I'm somewhat surprised by the luke-warm reader reviews for this book. It appears that despite the growing failure of the US to take care of its citizens' health, housing, education and hunger, these critics are content to wrap themselves in the flag because we don't live in Haiti or the "third world" as some say. (What are we? The "First World?")Nickel and Dimed could have made its point with one of Ehrenreich's scenarios. The argument that her scope was limited misses the point. All of the case studies focus on the difficulty of getting by in a lobby controlled society whose government counts on the gullible and apathetic masses buying into their propaganda. More than one-half of Americans are living from paycheck to paycheck. We have the highest unemployment in 10 years and at best, can look forward to a jobless recovery because the Boards of Directors are doing the voting here and they don't want to create more overhead or cut profits. Arguing that we are the best society available is a matter of perspective. If you live in Columbia, it may be true; if you live in Norway, with its highest standard of living, it may not. Ehrenreich does a fine job of exposing the society that most Americans just refuse to acknowledge. Recognizing the growing gap between the rich and poor means also recognizing that the corporate stanglehold on our elected(?)officials has turned a democracy into a two-party dictatorship with the people having no voice in choosing their candidates, influencing their legislature or safeguarding their own future. Maybe that's why Nickel and Dimed makes some readers so willing to dismiss its importance.
Rating: 
Summary: Living Among the Working Poor
Review: What would it be like to live the life of someone in a lower social class? Are the stereotypes of this lifestyle accurate? Is one's happiness directly corelated to his/her income level? Author Barbara Ehrenreich sets out on an adventurous mission in this book, "Nickel and Dimed". She spends several months working various odd jobs that are normally associated with the working poor, like restaurants, maid service, retail, etc. She explains what it was like to try to make a living in these type of occupations; how the supervisors and other corporate people treated the workers; and how the other workers behaved whom she got to know on the job. One thing I noticed right away is that Ehrenreich intended this as much more than just a book of adventure. This writing has definite political overtones. Ehrenreich seems to think that government should step in, wave its magic wand, and somehow make life better for everyone. She supports rent control, minimum wage increases, and all sorts of government intervention to make the lives of these individuals "less miserable". But are these people really all that miserable? Ehrenreich doesn't show any contempt toward her fellow workers, but she is convinced that they all live sad, pathetic lives and need to be rescued from this existance. I disagree with her on many of her observations. I once worked in restaurants, and I don't agree at all with her synopsis of the lifestyles of food service workers. Yes, there are some who are not happy. But the majority of them realize that low- wage jobs are the place that most everyone starts out and they learn to make the best of it. From my experience in fast- food, I recall having fun with my fellow employees; hosting parties; goofing off at work; joking about things; talking about the future; etc. There was no more sadness there, in the realms of the fast- food industry, then there is where I work right now, where the wages are much higher. I respect Ehrenreich for her ambition to temporarily join the ranks of the working poor and then publish a book about it. But I think the core problem with this book is that Ehrenreich is too far removed from the working poor to make a fair assessment of their plight. She is a member of the upper class, and I think her own social standing blurred her vision to some degree. It made things seem much worse than they really were because the conditions were so different from what she is used to. This book would have been better, and more fair, if the task of living among the working poor had been undertaken by someone closer to that level- like, say, someone currently in the middle class. This type of individual would be closer in rank to the working poor and would be able to make clearer judgements. Overall, this is an average book that definitely has its moments. Ehrenreich is naive and misguided if she really thinks that government is going to magically solve the problems of the working poor. She's also very ignorant of economics and other facts of business and free markets (she makes some really brainless statements about economics and wage rates in one of the chapters). On the other hand, she makes some good points about other issues of our day, like the constituional violation of rights that takes place when employees are subjected to mandatory drug testing. In spite of its occasional stupidity and its obvious political leanings toward government intervention, this is a good book to read. It's fun to read as Ehrenreich roams around the country from job to job, directly experiencing what it's like to scrape out a living, making only sustenance wages. "Nickel and Dimed" reminds us all of the plight of the working poor as they struggle to make ends meet. It's a good read, although a few changes would have made it better.
Rating:
Summary: Sometimes the Truth Really Hurts
Review: Nickel and Dimed is an excellent reference for young minds who might want to reconsider any attempts to make it on their own as a minimum wage employee. Barbara Ehrenreich possibly had a somewhat negative slant with the living conditions endured, but the facts and the numbers speak for themselves, And even from the most optimistic of perspectives, there is no pretty picture that can be painted and that will last. Perhaps the main standout of her experiences is her ordeal in Minnesota, where vacancies for rent are next to impossible to find. Despite an economic boom at the time, the job in retail is paying little, gas prices have skyrocketed, and the best possible living arrangements are for several hundred dollars a month in quarters that do not come close to being in standard condition. Interesting quotes comparing and contrasting the cost of living in the year 2000 with that of the early 1960s are provided, and they state that, over time, a larger portion of the monthly budget has gone to rent and a smaller portion to food. As of late, this book has been under fire for being a required reading for freshmen at UNC-Chapel Hill. Young conservatives from this school have criticized it as being a reference of the liberal media whom they perceive to be carrying out a Marxist agenda to brainwash those who are trying to hold on to American, traditional values. In response to their sentiments, I saw nothing overtly liberal in Nickel and Dimed. In fact, the experiences written about were during the Clinton years, when the economy was robust. To me, Barbara Ehrenreich was merely mentioning that there were hard-working individuals in this country who were being left behind and were not at a vantage point of being able to truly reap the benefits of prosperous times. And besides, which is worse? 1. to tell the truth that there are hard-working people, some of whom are well-educated, that are not receiving decent pay and adequate health insurance, or 2. to give a young adult the notion that a $40000+/ year job, a Lexus, a cell phone with added features, and a dream house are automatic birthrights for the average American citizen? All in all, I found Nickel and Dimed to be a much more engaging read than those boring, academic textbooks I used in my economics classes as an undergraduate.
Rating:
Summary: A worthwhile window into hard life in America, but . . .
Review: In this book, author Ehrenreich takes low-paying jobs in different American cities and describes her experiences, both on the job and at living on her adopted wages. This book is an engaging read. One feels for the author's fellow workers, and the author makes interesting points. For example, "unskilled" labor in America is not necessarily unskilled. There was a learning curve to every job the author undertook. Also, the author's co-workers in her journey among the working poor were not lazy, shiftless, non-starters, nor sub-normally intelligent. They worked hard at jobs many people would consider unsatisfying, for small remuneration. This book provides a glimpse at an element of society that most of us rarely encounter in any meaningful way, and what we see through Ehrenreich's eyes will probably surprise some. It may even make us more compassionate toward the working poor, a worthy end. My criticism of the book emerges from the author's obvious sympathy for communist systems, evident in her casual quotation of Mao Tse Dong and her insertion of Marxist jargon. I have visited communist countries, lived in China for two years, and studied history. I can only suppose that Ms. Ehrenreich's admiration for communism is only theoretical. Anyone who thinks it is cool to quote Mao Tse Dong should please read some of the memoirs that emerged from his reign, like Jung Chang's "Wild Swans" or Wu's "A Single Tear". The suffering of the protagonists in these fine books is not theoretical. Multiply their stories by many millions, and you get an accurate picture of life under Mao. Alexander Solzhenitsyn's books are a good antidote to sympathy for Soviet communism, if the revelations of death and terror under Stalin, well known now, does not suffice for that purpose. And if the author thinks living is difficult in the lowest-paying jobs in America, which it undoubtedly is, I invite her to try the same experiment in China, and to try being a human dray horse pulling a heavy coal cart all day. And that is what you see in the prosperous Chinese cities, under the comparatively enlightened economic policies initiated by Deng Xiao Ping and carried forward by his successors. I hate to think what you would see in the parts of China so poor that foreigners aren't allowed to travel there. To say nothing of the loss of political freedom that her emersion in a communist country would entail if she truly were to live like the masses. If not for the author's erroneous ideology, I would give this book four or five stars.
Rating: 
Summary: A simple Comment
Review: I think that Mrs. Ehrenreich has very little appreciation for the fact that our country's poor have as good a lifestyle as they do. I'm not saying it's easy to work a minimum-wage job and support a family, but perhaps the author could benefit from a comparison with a number of third world countries where the poor are not only literally starving, but also comprise a much larger percentage of the total population. No society has it perfect, but the United States is doing a DARN good job of providing a high standard of living for its citizens while also forwarding the previously unprecedented idea that anyone has the freedom and the capability to take it upon themselves to better their situation.
In short, "Nickel and Dimed" was fine as a personal story, but it fails as social commentary. It would have greatly benefitted from a bit more perspective and a bit less agenda.
Rating:
Summary: A Book For Any Thinking Person
Review: Do middle-class people often ponder what poverty is really like? Do we realize the nitty-gritty details of the "other half's" lives? I would venture to say that we don't, and because of our lack of interest and information about the poor, "Nickel and Dimed" becomes an incredibly important book. Upper-middle-class journalist Barbara Ehrenreich was just like everyone else in her socioeconomic bracket until she undertook the "project" that made this book possible. Determined to find out what the lives of the "working poor" were like...Ehrenreich decided to pose as "one of them" and take various low-paying jobs in three different locations. Then life became hell. While slaving away as a waitress, tirelessly scrubbing as an employee of a maid service, or trapped in the oppressive confines of Wal-Mart, Ehrenreich discovered the numerous problems that plague the working poor. She realized that housing was primitive (to put it nicely), wages never improved, food was grossly unhealthy, insurance was nonexistent, and worst of all, that her rights to dignity, freedom of speech, and being a valued employee vanished. And she found out that as a single "poor" person, her life was practically easy compared to many of her married or single parent coworkers. All I can say is that this book is amazing. As I was reading it, it was impossible not to realize how excellent (yes, excellent!) my middle-class life was by comparison. Barbara Ehrenreich's truly skillful writing fills the readers mind with unforgettable descriptions of her "experiment," and she writes with a powerful sympathy and barely disguised outrage at the dead-end lives of her co-workers. The writing is at times darkly funny as well, and every bit of this masterful writing only heightens the impact of "Nickel and Dimed." This book makes you think, makes you feel, makes you angry, and forces your eyes open to darker side of life in America. Ehrenreich clearly wants us to solve this problem of too-low minimum wages and bluntly says in her "evaluation" at the book's end that action, not guilt, is what readers should be concerned with after reading this book. As an astonishing wakeup call to the woes of minimum wage work in America, "Nickel and Dimed" is a finely written work with a powerful story to tell.
Rating: 
Summary: More like Pennies and Nickels
Review: I would buy this book if I could afford it.
Rating:
Summary: Skimming the Surface
Review: I did feel that "Nickel and Dimmed" was a good effort on Barbara Ehrenreich's part, but I believe she was only skimming the surface of living the low-wage worker's reality. Like other customer's who have reviewed this book, I felt her investigating was too short. She left many things out expense wise like insurance, break downs, and health insurance or lack thereof. I felt the book was not providing enough information until the evaluation at the end. Without this evaluation, the book would have been fluff. She did attempt to understand the low wage workers, but I never felt that she delved far enough into their lives. It seems as soon as things were getting rough, she would have to leave the city and go back to her real life. I do applaud her for leaving her comfortable life and attempting to understand the cruetly that goes on in every day life, I was just looking for something much more comprehensive then what I found. Maybe the book would have been better if she had did an evaluation after each city instead of all the way at the end of the book. I suggest this book for people who are not aware of the low-wage worker's ordeal and what it is like to try and live on so little. After reading this, I hope that readers who were stunned would read more about this subject. Ehrenreich said this is only the beginning and I believe her to be right. Hopefully change will come about as writers, activists, and every day people attempt to come together to bring about change for the better of all.
Rating: 
Summary: Zero was not an option
Review: My child received this book at Wright State college orientation. Even at first glance, I was so concerned with it's whiny, negative tone, and it's message that hard work has no redeeming value, that all entry level minimum wage jobs should be living wage jobs, that individuals are owed a living rather than should have to earn one, that even the hardest working lower skilled workers who manage to become supervisors are criticized for having now "gone over to the other side" rather than be congratulated for bettering themselves... that I had second thoughts about her enrollment at a University that would make this required reading. After reading the entire book, I hoped that perhaps reading this biased book would serve as a lesson in how college can assist in living a better life. Or at least a discussion on compassion and being commited to helping those who perhaps weren't able to manage the same. When I learned that the author has been invited to campus during welcome weekend I gave up hope that the book would be a point of balanced discussion. I have encouraged my HS senior to read the book and then many of these reviews so she does not begin her college years thinking this is the kind of "literature" she will have to endure, and that certainly not everyone feels the way the author does. One last comment, this book has been described as funny? I winced, blinked, became bored at times, but never once, laughed.
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