Rating: 
Summary: Putting Money Where The Mouth Is
Review: This book was my first exposure to Ehrenreich. Little did I know of her activist past. However she does something few writers do....puts their holier then thou theries to the test. Well written and a great idea this is the book for all you who think all people are poor because they choose to be.
Rating: 
Summary: You won't put it down !
Review: I read this book in almost one sitting. I worked my way through college doing many of the same jobs as "Barb" but I always knew it was just a way to get by and me eye was on the bigger goal of getting out of school. Her look at these jobs from a more mature vantage point gave me a real cause to pause and think. The mark of a good book is the way ideas and thoughts keep coming back to you in odd moments and they are directly related to what you just took in from the author. I found myself discussing the book with my lunch buddies, my husband and even my boss. The gentle way she presented the problems faced by the working poor didn't preach, just teach.
I found myself in a national chain variety store buying cat treats yesterday and I almost put them back thinking that the lady ringing me out would look at this as a waste of money as she probably is making due on a small budget. Being a childless women in a world that makes kids the golden calf I fully understood the comments of her co-workers while they cleaned for or served a meal to the "client". Longing can come from any everyday situation, a running shoe display as seen from the low angel of a wheel chair, a cart full of kids back to school supplies passing a lady who's childless, or a holiday spent in an empty house. But this book brings us back to the all too often hidden longings of thousands of people for simple things like a safe place to live, a hot dinner, and a chance to rest a sore back. I'll keep this book to read again and again. I'll also go from tipping 15% to 20% and be even nicer to the folks that stand behind counters. I never had a maid, for many of the same reasons bought out in the book, but if I ever need household help I will not be the boss, just the very thankful person being helped.
Rating:
Summary: Compelling Story That Should Make Americans Take Notice
Review: Barbara Ehrenreich has written a very readable, fasinating, and enlightening book about the very real problems of millions of Americans who have to subsist on minimum wage incomes. It will come as no surprise that minimum wages haven't begun to keep up with the cost of living. The primary culprit is the lack of affordable housing in the United States. The author makes a compelling case with her anecdotal evidence of just how miserable the housing is that low income families can afford. What is not so easily recognized as Barbara points out is that the minimum wage workers in the U.S. are subsidizing the rest of us, who really don't need to be. Her stories about working for Merry Maids and Wal-Mart are especially interesting, since those two companies are so well known. This book should be read by every politician who purports to represent the interests of the working class while at the same time greedily pocketing money from corporate lobbyists. Neither Democrats nor Republicans as the author points out, seem much interested in the working poor. The book has taken on added interest in this time of manifest corporate greed and corruption. At Wal-Mart, a question is posed to prospective workers: Would you turn in a fellow worker if you caught them stealing? I would add, even if that worker is the CEO?
Rating:
Summary: Social awareness
Review: This is the first social awareness book I've read in 10 years. I simply could not put the book down. This is the best first-person investigative reporting I've ever read.
Rating:
Summary: Nickel and Dimed
Review: Ehrenreich is an entertaining writer who flashes some light on a world that too many of us are unaware of, or choose to ignore. Essentially, human nature works this way: we usually only care about something once it involves us directly. Before you pass judgment - ask yourself: Have I been in these situations before? If you haven't - read this book with humility, or go work on the front lines yourself for a spell. If you have, remember that yes, the author's perspective is flawed, the experiment is not clean. A temporary, cushioned venture into the harsh world of grueling, humiliating, underpaid labor can't produce an accurate account, but it's better than nothing. I am glad that the book is sparking so much discussion. I would love to see a Studs Terkel-styled account of the working poor - does one exist? The stories you'd hear straight out of reality would blow Ehrenreich's experiences away. This is not about Liberals, Republicans, Democrats or any other label. This is about the by-products of capitalism, greed, and ignorance. Poverty, at any level, IS a form of violence. Don't smirk until you've tried it. Those who criticize this book probably have no idea how their lifestyle is supported - by those who, for one reason or another, find themselves collecting trash, slinging hash, or scrubbing toilets for a pittance. You vote with your dollars, people, everyday. Everything you own and all you do, somewhere down the line, is produced or serviced by an underpaid, mistreated human. Think - and thank your lucky stars if you're not in a bad way. This idea of the American dream is a golden carrot, and you don't get to where you are in a vacuum. Unless you have support, health and/or luck, it's very difficult to make forward progress. The condescending attitudes of those who do contribute to the problem. I hope none of you ever fall through your safety net, because when you do, suddenly "pulling yourself up by your bootstraps" becomes nearly impossible. Don't believe me? Ask a homeless person how they got where they are today. What if you lost your job, lost your house, couldn't pay for your car, couldn't live on unemployment, had no one to turn to, stopped paying your bills, had your phone cut off, and found work [at minimum wage]? Do the math. It's just not right. Two words: LIVING WAGE!
Rating: 
Summary: A Skewed But Interesting Look at the Working Poor
Review: We usually think of the Third World as Africa, Asia or Central America, but in this book Barbara Ehrenreich shows how closely much of America is starting to resemble the Third World in terms of income inequality and living conditions for the working poor. I recommend this book mainly because it will inform many members of the middle class and above about things they commonly ignore and may in fact prefer not to know. I wasn't completely enamored of the book's style. For one thing, Ehrenreich brings to the enterprise a strong left-liberal bias that colors all of her pereceptions. And, while her experiences working at low wage jobs was interesting to read about, the nature of her experiment was a bit disengenous. She was supposedly trying to determine whether these low wage jobs such as waitressing, housecleaning and retail sales would enable her to meet normal living expenses. In fact, as a writer who specializes in such topics, it's fairly certain that she knew the answer to these questions prior to going into the field. The experiences were more of a way to illustrate and dramatize what she already knew. And her observations and interactions with co-workers at these jobs is necessarily artificial. Like many members of her social class, she is unable to discard the persona of a privileged, white, educated, upper-middle class professional. Like many such people, her feelings regarding this identity are ambivalent, a mixture of pride and guilt. This causes her to bend over backwards in an effort to show her liberalism and lack of condescension to the poor people she meets. In the introduction, for example, she goes out of her way to point out that the working poor are fundamentally no different from the educated and prosperous. This, as Ehrenreich's experiences clearly show, is simply not true. This isn't to say that poor people are inferior, but it's a basic sociological fact that a person's job, income and environment greatly influence their beliefs and behavior. At the end of some of her assignments, Ehrenreich reveals her true motives for taking the jobs. In all of the cases she relates, the people were almost indifferent to, and clearly not very interested in this revelation. I cannot imagine such a lack of a reaction among more affluent people. The reason is clear enough; these people are struggling so much that they don't have the time or energy to be interested in abstract ideas. This is not a criticism of them, simply an observation, but one that Ehrenreich's ideology prevents her from looking at too closely. One of the fascinating subjects explored in this book is the culture of corporate propaganda, in which companies like Walmart use a sophisticated combination of techniques to ensure that their workforce remains docile and unrebellious. From the moment you fill out the job application, you are made to feel like, if not a prisoner, an institutionalized drone. Several of the places she applied to required personality tests that measure one's willingness to completely conform and turn in co-workers if necessary. I find it interesting how some of the consequences of capitalism have come to resemble communism.I was most impressed by the Evaluation chapter, the one that follows her work experiences. Here she points out that the working poor today are mostly invisible to those who live comfortably. In an increasingly fragmented and vicarious world, it's all too easy to live entirely within the sheltered cocoon of your milieu. This trend may be reversing, as the economy in general has taken a fall since Ehrenreich wrote this book. The basic points she brings up here are extremely important, and go beyond questions of politics and ideology. You don't have to be a socialist to agree with Ehrenreich that people who work hard should be able to pay their bills.
Rating:
Summary: SEE THE PLAY IN SEATTLE THROUGH 8/25/02
Review: I haven't read the book YET, but if you loved the book and have a chance to see the play, it is a must!! After seeing the play last night, I am going to purchase the book right away.It's at the Intiman in Seattle through 8/25/02 and the preview was fabulous!
Rating:
Summary: I'm giving a copy to everyone I know
Review: OK, many of us worked manual labor as kids while still under mom and dad's wing. But Barbara lays out, with humor and despair, the reality of supporting yourself at the lower end of the scale. What an amazing read. I will never avert my gaze from the Wallmart employees again. If you need a reminder of just how spoiled you and your friends are (trust me, if you're on Amazon, you're spoiled) give this excellent book a read. Most highly recommened for those of you with TEENAGERS.
Rating:
Summary: You can learn about people you usually overlook
Review: Ever since I read this book I look at waiters, maids, clerks in stores and supermarkets with a totally different eye.
We (the more or less affluent ones with good jobs) tend to take these people as granted and sometimes don't even treat them as human beings anymore, just as machines who have a useful function.
I never was unpolite or tried to save on the tips, but because of Ehrenreich's book I make sure to treat the people that "serve" me with extra respect and give them very good tips.
So I can say, that reading the book definetely made a difference in my life. My wish would be that many people get a chance to read it and in my opinion it should be required reading in our highschools.
Rating:
Summary: Yes, this should be required reading
Review: I am among those who found this book very valuable reading. No, I don't think that I was as shocked at what the author found as she was. The American Dream is beyond the reach of many of us and few of us are treated with a lot of respect in the jobs we do. Apparently the author has been unusually lucky in those respects, so she found some of the demeaning treatment more remarkable than I think many of us would. However, the inability to obtain stable housing even with none of the problems that many people face (past evictions, bad credit, utility shut offs) was discouraging and helped my sensitivity to that issue. And some of the inhumane treatment, like the rule that the maids couldn't drink water in the houses after hours of hot, strenuous work, was hard to believe. The author's goal was not to develop national policies to address all the issues that she discovered; her role was to outline for us what the problems are and I think she did an admirable job. The more people who read this book, the greater the possibility the we will be on the road to needed change.
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