Rating: 
Summary: liberal barbie goes camping
Review: the overwelming impression I got from reading this book is that this upscale, phd'ed (as we are constantly reminded), neo-socialist reporter spent three months playing at being poorand we get a book ? 3 suggestions for our erstwhile writer
1) ancedotal evidence is not evidence, and gets tiresome
2) personal spite is not a substitute for a lack of ANY facts
3) nobody cares about your personal journey don't waste your time, or money, on this book
Rating: 
Summary: Could not put this down!
Review: I totally dissagree with the 2 prior Reviews I've read on this site.
nickle And dimed is a great account on a poor american struggle in the work place.I totally related to this book in ALL ways.from the humilating Dead end jobs Ive had( and all of us have had at one point in time).you SHOULD pass this book on to ANYONE that is suffering in the work place.or is trying to get by in the SUPPOSED "LAND OF OPPERTUNITY".which is obviously limited to those without money,or a higher education.
My hats off to Barbara Ehrenreich . PASS THIS ON to anybody you know that works in a Grocery store,a diner,or any other place that treats their employees like mice.
Rating:
Summary: embarrassing
Review: I admit, I was lured by the marketing ploys used on the cover of the book (who can resist "riveting grit"?). By the end of the book (well, before, really) I was ready to throw it across the room. Ehrenreich's experiment turned out to be merely a pretext for promoting her ready-made, pampered-liberal-white-woman's views. Instead of being transformed by her experiences, she seems to have come away even more entrenched in her already-held opinions and two-dimensional views of working-class women. Her "instant proletarian" identity, and the way she suddenly began spouting the corresponding rhetoric, was disingenuous, if not laughable. She knew that she was not one of "them," nor even that she would end up being a friend to one of "them." She seemed to care so very deeply about these women collectively, while remaining at an arm's-length on the personal level, never truly getting involved. Then, her conclusions at the end seemed sophomoric, based largely on subjective notions of psychology and sociology. I was glad she pointed out that some of the "Merry Maids," when interviewed about how they felt about the people whose houses they cleaned, never felt the kind of resentment, malice, or self-righteousness that Ehrenreich evinced while cloaked in her over-sympathetic, contrived persona. Disappointingly, whenever Ehrenreich encountered views and attitudes among these women that challenged her preconceptions, instead of taking them to heart, she just seemed to write them off as curiosities and anomalies. The nerve this book touched for me was one of embarrassment, since I consider myself a liberal of similar educational and economic background to Ehrenriech, but apparently not nearly as sheltered from (or surprised by) the working class world as she seems to be (doesn't she even have any family members in dire straits?). That there are so many elite, insulated people "enlightened" by this book, enough to make it a bestseller, worries me. I'm considering whether this book hasn't pushed me a few notches to the right. I concluded that a more interesting experiment would be to have a poor woman write a book about taking the place of a Barbara Ehrenreich for a year, with all the P.C. trappings of the upper-middle-class educated elite, and see what conclusions she reaches.
Rating: 
Summary: Too White to See Blue
Review: Barbara Ehrenreich, in an attempt to raise our consciousness regarding the plight of America's working poor, has done nothing but humiliate them in this self-righteous attempt at "real journalism." In taking three supposedly demeaning jobs and sticking them out for a month to see if she could make rent, she supposedly explores the lives of the millions of Americans who work full-time for poverty level wages. While she does bring to light some of the lesser known facts about American poverty in the footnotes, the body of text does little more than proclaim her contempt for anyone who isn't privileged to be like her. No one who is actually poor could walk out in the middle of a waitressing shift or call her dermatologist to prescribe antibiotics over the phone. In living a combined rich/poor lifestyle and claiming to have experienced an impoverished lifestyle, she is merely mocking those who actually struggle to make ends meet, for survival, not to score a sweet book deal. You would think that an experience like this one would change a person's attitude, make a difference at the deepest level of there humanity. But all we learn from this book is that Ehrenreich is sure glad she isn't poor.
Rating:
Summary: preordained conclusions
Review: Perhaps this writer has never worked (thankfully her father did). She should not have bothered to waste her time experiencing the work force. Her conconclusions were all preordained although she claimed she was investigating her hypothesis. I'm sure she's planning to give the fortune she makes on this book to those unfortunates she has written about.
(Perhaps George, the Czech she failed to defend on charges of stealing).
Rating:
Summary: Liberals will love it...Conservatives will hate it>
Review: Ms. Ehrenreich rants on about how awful the lower income classes in America have it and attempts to fill the reader with guilt should they be fortunate (lucky) enough to have reached a level of comfort regarding their personal income. Although she has at least one Ph.D. she attempts go undercover "to live" the life of a minimum wage earner in America and tells the tearjerking reality of underachievers. Knowing that she will never have to stay at this income level beyond her research time, she makes no effort to elevate herself out of and escape this "reality". That is the flaw in her writing. It leaves the reader sedated with the ether of permancy; that being the assumption that there simply is no way out. She ignores the very foundation of what this country was founded on, opportunity. She does not mention the millions of Americans who began in abject poverty and today are found among the middle class to the very wealthy. She couldn't help to take a few cheap shots at the "rich" by making the observation that they read books across the spectrum, starting on the very dredges of the literary world with such authors as Limbaugh and Grisham. So if you're a Grisham fan, according to the Author, you simply do not have the gray matter to "get it" anyway. If you have read a Limbaugh book, (or listened)well, let's not go there. Perhaps Ms. Ehrenreich will paint her face with dark shoe polish for her next book and go undercover to live the life of an African/American or a Hispanic American. Don't waste your time on this one.
Rating: 
Summary: Pretty good, but not in depth enough
Review: An interesting look at the problems encountered by the working poor, but I would have preferred if the author had been more in depth about making ends meet on a minimum wage job. Thousands of us do it every day, and few of us have the resources the author had for _start up costs_. Try scrabbling for a place to live on $200 and a 16 year old car. I know, because I did it. And I am well educated and literate and a published writer, too. I would have been in heaven with the amount of money she had to start out on.
Rating:
Summary: Bravo Barbara Ehrenreich
Review: I believe that Barbara Ehrenreich gifted the world with this book. It is a telling tale and she takes us where she went. As an American, I felt some shame. American waiters and waitresses are famous for their friendliness and willingness. Many Americans have been in that role. She takes us farther when we go to Portland, Maine to clean houses. The franchise gets the most money, of course. What a world she exposes. Then, Wal-Mart in Minneapolis, phew. I was cheering that Sam's darling and deserving heirs give up a fraction of their inheritance and allow the poor worker bee employees a $14 per hour life. Imagine, such a world. My only beef with this splendid writer is that she allows her own sparsely informed prejudices to pass judgement on the nutrition and sanitation standards of the insider world where she treads. A true liberal would never brag about using oceans of hot water to kill the bacteria. And there were way too many references to her expensive middle-class work-outs. A true liberal would know that many people work-out without a dime spent. But I appreciated her bravado and spirit and humor. I like the way she discloses how she finds humanity in places where she has not been before. She finds some wondrous souls and she shares them with us. These worker bees she tells us about certainly seem a better lot than the CEOs being exposed in today's news. We need way more books like this.
Rating:
Summary: Well-written, funny, revealing
Review: I thoroughly enjoyed this book, learned quite a bit, laughed a lot, and fully appreciated its liberal stance. I am glad so many college students are reading it and I wish CEOs across America would also read it. If you liked this book, you might also like Fast Food Nation, Life is so Good, and Senator Paul Wellstone's autobiography.
...
Rating:
Summary: My world view has changed after reading this book
Review: This book should be required reading in all high schools, colleges and for all adults who earn wages above those of the "working poor." Most of us know little about the demeaning lives the working poor are forced to live, or the almost impossible task of improving their lives, and the author, through her telling of her LIVED EXPERIENCE in jobs held by the working poor, exposes the reader to their plight. It gives much food for thought, including the responsibility each of us has to help address and solve this problem. I had never thought about how invisible the "working poor" is in our society, and the author does all of us great service in telling their story, which we all need to hear.
| 
