Rating: 
Summary: Disappointing!
Review: This is a most disappointing book especially when compared to the investigative "workplace" journalism provided by German author Guenter Wallraff. (Unfortunately, I do not believe that his books, such as "Ganz Unten", "Der Aufmacher", "13 Reportagen", were ever translated into English.)
Rating:
Summary: Life [disappoints] - The world according to Ehrenreich
Review: It is amazing to me that a person would spout such nonsense. As a person who has worked many low paying jobs, I can say with authority that the author's portrayal of life is dead wrong. We don't sit around and whine, we try to better ourselves and succeed.
Rating: 
Summary: A real eye-opener
Review: As the cost of living has steadily risen, real wages have dropped and the political response to this harsh reality in the United States has been to dismantle our social insurance system in the name of "welfare reform". In "Nickel and Dimed" Barbara Ehrenreich brings home the human toll of these "reforms", using her own experience as a working-class American trying to make ends meet in this new economic climate. Everyone who is not part of America's blue-collar working class should read this book and keep Ehrenreich's experiences in mind the next time there's an election or someone tries to sell us "reforms" to our social insurance network.
Rating: 
Summary: Hard time in the free world
Review: This is not a temperate review.Some will feel it is not merely intemperate but presumptuous,with me not being an American.I feel qualified to comment on the book by virtue of my own experiences on the UK job scene and by virtue of an enormous respect for the USA allied to a belief that support does not mean always giving unstinted praise and that love consists of telling what feel like home truths no matter how uncomfortable that makes both the speaker and the listener.
At the back of my mind when reading this book were quotes from the men I consider to be the 2 finest American presidents.One was uttered in 1860 by Lincoln and goes " All that harms labor is treason to America".The second quotation was uttered in 1933 by FDR and runs " No business which depends for existence on paying less than living wages to its workers has any right to continue in this country.By living wages I mean more than a bare subsistence level.I mean wages of decent living"
As an aside ,it seems to me when corporations like Duane Reade are,according to litigation filed by workers ,routinely breaking state and federal labour laws by paying as little a 75 cents an hour,much still remains to be done to make FDR' s words a living reality.
The phenonema of low wage unskilled work is not peculiarly American and the experiences catalogued by Ehrenreich across the States are paralleled in my own country and I can vouch from experience for the way low pay consumes a larger slice of money for food and basic living costs than does work higher up the economic scale.When well over 70 percent of your money goes on food,and a roof over your head where does that leave the ornaments of life -reading,vacations,and not facing a major finanacial problem when your shoes wear out and you need new clothes for job interviews or for your job itself. Looking good takes money.The author conveys with admirable accuracy the thousand and one humiliations of life on the margins-where choice is a hollow mockery and every stroll past shopping malls and restaurants further drives a nail into the coffin that is now housing your self -respect
Some of the employment practices detailed are truly odious especially advertising vacancies which do not exist merely in order to build up a picture of the labour market in your area,and the interview conducted without human agency.The wiping clean of overtime dockets and curious induction practices further shame the employers and the nation that permits such practices.
I was uncomfortable with the idea of the book -a white middle class journalist "slumming" always has an out which those about whom she is writing do not possess but she has performed a service in raising the issue of poverty both of money and expectation.The pity of it is she is more likely to be read by those already sympathetic to the issues and people involved-it should really be read by the advocates of such pernicious nonsense as "monetarism" and that comic modern shibboleth "trickledown"
I worked construction,drove trucks,swept the streets for 20 years due to family necessity and what got me through into an education which turned things around was blind cussedness and family support to die for.Others-equally bright ,equally courageous and less white, will never get the chance
What emerges for me here is that we are not talking race or gender but power and until economic power is distributed with more compassion then America will be failing to ensure equality of opportunity for all its citizens.
I never criticise what I dont love,and this is written from love because I still believe in the American dream Pity more CEO's dont.
Longer on description than diagnosis though it is this is still a powerful starting point for debate and the book is worth yur time especially if you instintively shy away from its arguements and its subject matter
Rating:
Summary: Only Eye Opening If Your Head Is In the Sand
Review: The book is entertaining and a good read. It will only open your eyes if you are REALLY clueless about the $6/hour life.Unlike others, I thought the occasional political comments were appropriate and well placed. Some of her non-political comments were a little over the top. E.g., a statement that having maids clean on hands & knees has something to do with "anal availability." I enjoyed the book, but, don't look for more than a good (sometimes depressing) story.
Rating: 
Summary: It Must Be Nice To Be Barbara Ehrenreich
Review: Bare in mind that I read this book for a college cource, so I have had to read, re-read and analize every page, paragraph, word and fragment.
I was sceptical about the book from the begining. A book that thries to answer the question, "Is it possible to live on min-wage in America?" The problem is that that question has been answered over and over by investigative news reports, magazines, and even congressmen and women who advicate the "living wage." So, do we really need another book that tells us that it is not possible to live on min-wage. After reading it, I have to say the answer is no.
Ehrenreich's book was an unnessicery addition to the flood of information we have on the subject. Not only that, but her introduction is lacking in hummility, and it quickly slated me against her work. Her attempt at "undercover" research gives her so much more of an advantage over the welfare mothers that she is trying to relate to. So much of an advantage that the reader cannot possibly comprehend how Ehrenreich suffered the burden of a tremndusly tight budget.
In the end, this book does one thing right, show the public that the single mothers, often the result of divorce from deadbeat husbands, on welfare are not the lazy, greedy, government money waisting women that the conservitive right would like to believe. The truth is that they are hard working women often with several jobs to support their children, forgoing so much to make sure their children have what they need. It's a crime the government took 6 million of these women off of welfare. And if you ever see someone with a "Work hard, millions of people on welfare are counting on you," bumber sticker, wait untill a red light, get out of your car, and slap them.
As for Ehrenreich, it must be nice to be her. She gets to return to her comfortable life after pretending to live a difficult one. Not only that, but she gets to enjoy the proffits from a best selling book, which has to be somewhat gaulling to the women on welfare who, if they could have had the free time from rasing their children and working two jobs, could have writen a much more indepth and very personal account of being on welfare, and maybe made some extra money. Then again, no one said life was fair.
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Summary: An eye-opening picture of how the other half lives
Review: This is an excellent little book for anyone, especially the following: The techie who boasts about the "New Economy" but can't figure out why everyone isn't as thrilled as him. The frustrated middle-class progressive who can't understand why the working class isn't better organized or more responsive to left-wing politics. The sincere politician who wants a better understanding of her constituents: even the ones who can't offer monetary contributions. In trying to get a better understanding of the working poor, Ehrenreich went further than most journalists are willing to go: she voluntarily joined their ranks. This was not a half-hearted effort like "work-days" (a stunt several congressmen use, where they spend one day a month--usually near an election--doing common labor), but a full lifestyle transition. Granted, as she even admits, she could never make a full transition. But her experiences are nevertheless eye-opening. I especially appreciated her time in Maine working for the maid-service. It's amazing how people in that line of work manage to keep their dignity. This book does not offer any lofty solutions to the problems of poverty in America. It merely presents a brief sketch of those Americans who (for whatever reason) missed out on the "prosperous" 1990's. It's a realistic counterbalance to the market-cheering op-eds one finds in almost all mainstream newspapers.
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Summary: A review of the BOOK, not on the nobility of B.E.'s cause!
Review: There are hundreds of excellent books out there in both mainstream and alt presses which portray the plight of the working poor with aplomb and scholarship. Some of these books are thorough and entertaining, mixing good social science and journalism with an entertaining voice. Some books even show the world of the working poor from within successfully. This is not one of them. The premise of "Nickel and Dimed" is interesting (three different geographical, month long "experiements" to see if working "unskilled" jobs will really make ends meet, as welfare critics claim) but Ehrenreich comes across as too shallow to do more than study herself alternating between a) an exhausted, hopeless despair that she imagines is the despair of the working poor and b) a libertarian, union-crazed, "something must be done about this" champion of the labor class from within, which ultimately comes across as one of the worst possible cases of classism I've ever seen a sociologist not notice in herself, especially since, as Ehrenreich herself shows again and again, people who are REALLY within this class are too tired and mis-informed to develop on their own. Her inability to truly identify with her subjects -- she uses the work "overqualified" to describe herself more times than I can count -- while nevertheless trying to constantly identify with her working-class faux-peers as subject in her own experiment seems to have created too confusing a perspective for a successful analysis or for strong subjective conclusions to be made, but unfortunately Ehrenreich doesn't seem to have realized this, and tries anyway. That said, Ehrenreich does portray place well -- you get a good sense of the spaces she inhabits in her journey, and of the geographical diversity of Maine, Minnesota, and Key West set against the working class "sameness" of situation in each site -- and the sub-narrative that shows her working through her guilt at "cheating" (i.e. taking advantage of the temporary nature of her situation at every turn) is entertaining. She is a good and well-trained sociologist, so her concluding chapter, which tries to contextualize her own experience in a larger national sense of class struggle and failure, both establishes a serious problem and shows us why it is worsening. Plus, it's a fast read, so might be worth it if you didn't want to think too much. But overall, Ehrenreich has done much better -- her book "Fear of Falling," a mid-eighties study of the identity of the middle class in America, was excellent. I recommend reading that instead, if you haven't yet gotten to it. I note that many reviewers here seem to be championing Ehrenreich for "exposing" the way the working poor are mis- and dis-served by our modern cultural norms and institutions. Surely, this is a noble pursuit. But Ehrenreich is only one of many who have tried to do so -- and her attempt is marred by some serious personal and professional sticking points, which combine to make a slick but ultimately empty and suprisingly short book. Praise her for her motives if you must, but please, for all our sakes, review the product, not the intent. It's quality, not just subject choice, which makes a "good" product.
Rating:
Summary: some interesting points
Review: Ehrenreich does an interesting social expirement by leaving her nice upper-middle class life to see what it's like to live in the working poor. Though I find some things odd such her avoiding places multicultrual setting such as Chicago, New Jersey, California or New York and choosing Minnesota and Maine as two of her locations. Such comparisions between those two environments would have been greately appreciates especially taking into account that the multicultural places tend to have higher costs of living further hurting the working poor. Though Ehrenreich does give voice to a segment of the American population that is overlooked. One of my favorite part of the book is when she is in Maine working as a maid. She is watching TV realizing that the life of the working poor is not mentioned causing them ot believe that their numbers are smaller than they actually are. Enrenreich gives voice to the working poor by shoing the level of difficulty involved with living on ... an hour. She is often forced to work two jobs or consider it in order to make ends meet. In addition, she deals with the hard work that's involved in a lot of menial jobs. She mentions the strain of jobs such as maid work and waitressing have on people.
Rating:
Summary: An oblivious author decides to go slumming
Review: The first thing I'd have to say about this work is that the issues and problems that Ehrenreich is so incredulous about are so incredibly obvious and accessible that I can't even believe she managed to make an entire book out of it. If you really are as oblivious as her, save yourself twelve bucks and just sk your teenage kid who works at Burger King about the book's topics. The author spends her whole introduction trying to establish her "true proletarian" roots but that still doesn't excuse what was to me a rich lady's fantasy sight-seeing tour of difficult lives. If Ms. Ehrenreich truly believes that spending 2 weeks in each job is enough to understand the world of her lower class neighbors, she is her own punishment. In the end, this was a cheaply conceived book by an author who, if nothing else, has very limited knowledge of her subject (as evidenced by such always shocked "they were smoking weed on the job!" anecdotes). I can say two things in her defense: 1) she seems sincere. 2) she has managed to draw attention to the problem of substandard living. For my own part, I returned the book. A waste of money.
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