Rating: 
Summary: A Brave and Informative Endeavor
Review: I was so impressed by barara's accounts and her bravery in undertaking the project. She is the only author I have ever personally written and thanked for a book. After reading Nickled and Dimed, I had this mantra in my head that my time is just not worth 8 dollars an hour.
Rating:
Summary: Barbara enlightens readers to the downfalls of low wage jobs
Review: Barbara does an excellent job portraying what minimum wage workers go through. She does this by telling the reader what her day to day life is like. To accurately do this, Barbara has to tell readers the physical hardships her body is going through. When doing this, she may seem like she is complaining. She is whining, although she is whining with the purpose of enlightening people to the hardships people face every day. I think that this book was interesting to read. Yet it does not have any startling information for people who are currently working the jobs that she worked. This book would be best suited for someone who is in Barbara's place in life. Someone well educated, who has not worked a minimum wage job for many years.
Rating: 
Summary: Nickel and Dimed?
Review: This book will give you a look at a couple different aspects of low wage workers. In Barbara Ehrenreich's study, she works many different jobs in many different regions throughout the United States to show how low wage workers get treated in todays world. Throughout her experiences she documents all of her own and her fellow workers experiences.On the other hand, if you can manage listening to her complain about working this hard low income jobs, you learn that she only works for month at a time and hear her talk about how bad she is living. I believe you will really enjoy this book.
Rating: 
Summary: Nickle and Dimed: Not Worth Your Time
Review: I believe that there is a problem in our society with how much people get paid for long and hard hours of work. And I believe it is hard for low-income workers to get by in our materialistic society. I think Barbra Erenreich had a great idea to write about this problem, however, she just doesn't deliver what she promises.
The author of Nickle and Dimed, Barbara Erenreich, has her Ph.D. in biology and is the author of Blood Rites; The Worst Years of Our Lives; Fear of Falling; and many other books. Her background might make her sound creditable but come on a Ph.D. in biology, the study she writes about in this book has nothing to do with biology. She was suppose to be analyzing the challenges of low-wage workers around the United States to bring people up to date on what really happens. The only analysis that I recieved from this book though was a whiny, complaining journal of Barbara's stupid choises and problems. And not enough about her co-workers real life problems and situations like I had expected. Erenreich knew the whole time she could leave any second she wanted and that it would be over in a month, but she acted like a baby which made the story she had to tell annoying. I have worked jobs worse then some she had and not once did I find my self complaining as much as she did. That is what really made me hate this book, she doesn't give what she promises. She breaks the rules, that she set for herself, and she over exaggerates her problems expecially knowing she will be done soon. I bet not one of her co-workers, if she would have thought to ask them or interview them, would not have complained as much as she did. The jobs they have are their life and they learned to live with what they get, thats what I have always done. Erenreich, on the otherhand, obviously takes things for granted and doesn't know how to give up certain things to have a little more money for the essentials. I would never recomend this book because you would get more results from getting yourself a low-wage job for the time it would take you to read her book.
Rating: 
Summary: Fascinating!
Review: A fabulously written account of living in the entry-level job world. Entertaining and edifying, a great read!
Rating: 
Summary: A tad tendentious, but entertaining
Review: Barbara wrote a compelling book; not a difficult or very long read, however. She attempted experiments in which she would sustain herself on "low-end" jobs in different areas of the United States. Her anecdotes about cleaning toilets (definitely sans clean language, throughout the book in fact) and trying to live in dilapidated, squalid conditions, brought uproarious laughter. After reading most of the book, I expected it to end with the exclamation, "Workers of the world, unite!" Actually, it basically did. I have absolutely no problem with Ehrenreich saying what she has to say and her beliefs, but she has gaps in her reasoning. For example, she mentions a coworker who wants to work her way up into a better job some day, and then seems not to realize that it happens. Some of the people with "low end/dead end" jobs stay stuck there, but many do not, and Ehrenrich seems to assume that all of them stay stuck. Her real-life "experiment" was remarkably limited in scope, although attempting to live on a meager income is an innovative and fresh way to discover the "hows and whys" of low-income workers' experiences and living conditions. Had she done it longer, she probably would have gotten better at it. People usually don't try to live somewhere for 2-4 weeks brand new to a city and then stop and move again to a far away city. Family, friends, and familiarity with a given area, among other factors, can make cheap living possible and bearable. To be sure, take the book with a grain of salt. The ideas are worth considering, as long as the reader remembers that an issue by definition has TWO SIDES...
Rating:
Summary: A better understanding of low-wage jobs and their workers
Review: Barbara Ehrenreich decides to become a low-wage worker to see if she can make ends meet. She travels to three different cities, (Key West, FL, Portland, Maine, and Minneapolis, MN) to determine if anyone can get by in America with a job that pays $6-$7/hr. She becomes a waitress, a housekeeper, a dietary aide at a nursing home, a maid, and then she lands a job in the ladies department at Wal-Mart. Ehrenreich soon finds out that it isn't easy finding a good paying job, or finding an apartment that is in a decent neighborhood for a reasonable price that would fit into her budget. So, she lives in hotels because she cannot afford anything better. She spends days applying at different jobs, but rarely nobody calls her back for an interview. At a few interviews that she does have, she must take a personality test and/or a drug test before she can be hired. Ehrenreich points out that it is almost impossible for these people to live without the financial help of a friend, a boyfriend, a husband, or a relative to live with. This book is great because it makes more people in our society realize that minimum wage is not enough for anybody to live on and something needs to be changed. Many people, I myself, thought that people were poor because they couldn't hold a job or because they were too lazy to find one. But Ehrenreich points out that a good majority of the poor are people who work, but don't get paid enough to afford housing, a car, medical costs, or food. Ehrenreich might upset people, offend them, or even make them mad, but what is important is that she talks about reality. Sometimes she complains about some of her jobs but only to point out that these low-paying jobs aren't that great, and these people have to work these jobs for a living, and they have nothing better to look forward to. Overall, I believe that Ehrenreich is bringing up an important issue that all people should be more aware of. What would you do without a factory worker, a maid to clean your house, a waitress to serve you food, employees at department stores, or aides to take care of the elderly in nursing homes? Our world wouldn't function without the help of these people who are working for $6-$7/hr because nobody else wants to. So next time you are at the store, or eating at a restaurant make sure that you appreciate what they do for you because they are getting paid much less than they deserve for serving your everyday needs. I recommend this book to anyone who isn't fully aware that a good portion of our society is below the poverty line and deserves better, or for anyone else who can enjoy the truth of reality whether it looks good or bad, and especially for anyone who has never had to work at a low-paying job.
Rating:
Summary: A few remarks...
Review: Most of the people who have submitted negative reviews about this book apparently didn't get past the crucial first five pages. In the author's own words: "this is not some sort of death-defying "undercover" adventure. Almost anyone could do what I did - Look for jobs, work those jobs, try to make ends meet. In fact, millions of Americans do it every day, and with a lot less fanfare and dithering." Instead of giving us a lurid "Dateline"- style expose of working-class existence, Ehrenreich offers something much more vital: a highly detailed and intimate account of the psychological and physical toll that service-sector jobs demand of their employees. If Ehrenreich, as a healthy, educated white woman with no dependents could barely afford substandard housing while working two jobs, it's a telling indication that, for many of her overburdened coworkers, gainful employment remains frustratingly out of reach. Moreover, it's unfair to say that Ehrenreich panders to liberal sensibilities without offering viable solutions to working-class hardships. In a characteristically lively and informative fashion, she makes a series of persuasive arguments about working-class problems. Among other things, she proposes a wider availability of affordable housing and comprehensive health care plans, a living wage, and especially an abandonment of "middle management" techniques that leave laborers feeling like inmates in a prison. At a time when dot-com millionaires and cheery news reports about the rising middle class abound, it's refreshing to have someone like Ehrenreich illustrate so dramatically that many of the problems that have plagued generations of working class citizens still persist.
Rating:
Summary: On Getting Through this Book
Review: I was assigned to read this book for a first year English class at the University of Iowa. When I bought the book I thought it looked interesting, more so than the typical grammar book. In fact, I was very excited to read it. That is until I actually got to the reading part.
In the introduction Ehrenreich presents this book as an honest look into the life of a low wage worker. She keeps half of that promise. She gives us a glimpse of the life of a low wage worker, but not a very honest or accurate one. The book gives many examples of inconsistency to this early promise: most people do not have the $1,200 she allowed for start up, have children to support as well, and do not have another life to return to in three months. I think the principle of this book is a good idea, although I do not think the presentation was all it could be.
Throughout the book Ehrenreich feels the need to remind the reader that this is a temporary position for her, and that in a month she will have all the privileges that come with her Ph.D. If you can get past the numerous references to her old life and all the complaints of an aching back this is a book that can be enjoyable.
Although it is difficult to finish because it is very frusterating to read a book by a woman who seems quite condescending to her co-workers because this is their "real" job and only an experiment it is worth reading to the finish.
Rating:
Summary: Hard Work pays off
Review: Journalist / Doctor Barbara Ehrenreich takes on an experiment she had in mind for anyone other than herself. Ehrenreich's experiment was to work in a low paying environment and try to last the entire month, while paying for all of her necessities. She did a good job at exploring and explaining how hard it is to be a lower class working person. Ehrenreich traveled to three different locations, which were mostly bigger cities. She takes on random jobs such as being a waitress, maid, and working at 'Wal-Mart.'
Ehrenreich takes an in-depth look into what it really feels like to be a lower class worker. Something she has never experienced. There are however downfalls to the book as well. She fails to show compassion and lovingness towards her new colleges, possibly because she knows she will be gone in a month.
Overall this book is a must read if you are interested in wondering what it is like to live in the life of a lower class worker. This may not be the most cheerful book to read, however Ehrenreich makes an attempt to add comic relief at times when it is needed. It is a hard book to put down and I encourage many to read this!
|
