Rating: 
Summary: Faking the Working Class
Review: Barbara Ehrenreich makes an interesting journey in the heartland of America. She spent three months playing a disposable hero for small wages. At first glance it seems horrific that anyone should be forced into such circumstances.
In fact there are many many options. From roomates (reduces rent), a technique I used during college to social services (churches) can help alleviate some of these problems. For people who seemed doomed to live in the lower class there is one radical solution that would have never occurred to Barbara Ehrenreich and most of the other Amazon.com reviewers: Enlist in the military. At worst (single with no dependants) they will receive a place to live (at most bases somewhat simular to a dorm room), about 10/hr and the chance to get some decent skills and maybe some educution. Yes there is a downside to this option but the benfits both materially and morally far outweight the problems. Still, this would be too radical of an idea for Barbara Enrenreich ilk. (Besides, she would have to give up her drugs).
Rating: 
Summary: "Forget" This Book
Review: Read "Nickel and Dimed." Take it to Wal-Mart. "Forget" it in the employees' break room. Barbara Ehrenreich's book inspires just such outrage and activism. We might understand a Mom-and-Pop store paying a legal wage that is still too low for a decent life. Cash flow is tight. But stores like Wal-Mart, and in particular Wal-Mart, have such a huge cash flow that they could afford to raise their prices, pay a living wage to their employees, and STILL make huge profits. Criticize Ehrenreich's methods if you must (and they invite some criticsm), but the basic fact is that she was, for all intents and purposes, a full-time employee of chain businesses that, taken together, dominate the US economy. If ever there was a case for government regulation of chain businesses, this is it. What else is there for it? We could stop patronizing chain restaurants, which in my overweight state wouldn't be a bad idea. But then underpaid folks would have no jobs at all. We could double our tips, which my wife and I have begun to do. But tips are divided among all of the workers in a given place. We could TRY not to patronize Wal-Mart, but it's the only game in our town of 15,000 souls. When it came in, two other long-standing Iowa businesses closed. The nearest Target is 35 miles away. Nope, I'm writing a letter to my Congressman, if he can stop rattling sabers at imaginary enemies long enough to care about ordinary people. In the meantime, where did I put that copy of her book?
Rating:
Summary: Playing At Poverty
Review: "I have stood ten hours. I have washed and filled seven hundred jars. My pay is seventy cents.....I have become, in desperate reality, a factory girl, alone and friendless. I am earning $4:00 a week and spending three quarters of that on rent. I dread not being strong enough to keep my job..."
This is from an article by a female journalist of the early twentieth century who, without benefit of credit or a car, did the same as Barbara Ehrenreich; that is survived as a low wage worker.
Accounts of muckraking journalism are nothing new. Barbara Ehrenreich is, however, the first person to try to subsist in the lower strata of the wage scale for years. I wish that she had been more honest in her attempt and did without the buffers which prevented her from really knowing what life at the bottom of the economic ladder is like. Because she had a number of back-up resources she could do things like walk out on a job when things got too tough, not show up at another job because she was too tired to go to work, and encourage her fellow nonunionized maids to go on strike when one of tbeir number was injured, thereby risking their jobs. As a low wage worker I wish that I had such options when things get rough on the job. Over the last dozen years I have worked a series of jobs, the average wages of which total less than eight dollars an hour. In some ways I am more fortunate than Barbara's coworkers since I own a house (an inherited four room cottage needing more repairs and TLC than I can afford to give it.) I know I am lucky when I read the local real estate ads and learn that a one bedroom winter rental averages $900 dollars a month ( first, last and security required: no pets or smoking). Summer rentals can climb to more than two grand a month.( And several reviewers thought $675 a month was bad for a year-rounder!) I might own a house, but I'm still badly off. Over the years grander homes than mine have multiplied on my street and property taxes are based on the overall value of the houses in a neighborhood. I pay three grand a year in property taxes. I don't have a working furnace and get through the winter with electric space heaters.I make too much to qualify for any kind of assistance. My property taxes and electric bill combined equal or exceed some peoples' rents. Food is a major expense.Aside from unavoidables like socks and underwear I haven't bought new clothes in years. Fixing the furnace is an impossible dream. The temperature in my house drops to the low fifties during a cold snap. I drive a rusty seventeen year old car.
Though boasting of her health and strength, Ms Ehrenriech seems beaten down by some of her jobs. She is too embarassed to go shopping in her maid's uniform, either because of the garish colors of same, or because she feels she is too disgusting in her post work condition to be seen in public. She was sweaty, no big deal. I've worked some factory jobs ( a form of labor Ms Ehrenriech escaped) that were filthy. For REAL embarrassment she should try grocery shopping after spending eight+ hours mixing dyes in a candle factory with no protective clothing, or working in a potato chip factory at an average temperature of a hundred and twenty degrees with three hundred degree oil splashing on you. I've endured both and gone shopping afterwards. Nobody ever commented on my dirty clothes, but if they had my answer would have been, "Screw you, I'm paying my way." The reason I took those jobs in the first place is that they paid more than other, cleaner jobs (Nine or ten dollars an hour as opposed to five or six. Those "dirty" jobs often required weekend work and massive overtime, but they enabled me to save a bit and even buy a few luxuries like Christmas presents.
Barbara Ehrenriech spouts socialist retoric, but she never tries to get to know her coworkers. Once she learns their housing situations and if they eat a healthy lunch, she is done with them. To her they are statistics, not people, or, heaven forbid, potential friends. Throughout the book her sense of supriority shines through.
Rating:
Summary: A Glimpse at the Dark Side of the American Dream
Review: 'Nickle and Dimed' looks at the results ' for millions of Americans ' of some of this country's harsher values (i.e., unfettered capitalism, 'rugged individualism,' low taxes, getting people off 'the dole,' the belief that if you just work hard enough you can make it, and that if you haven't made it, you must be lazy or shiftless or something, etc.). It's an engrossing book for the most part, well written, angry, and "in your face." It's also largely anecdotal, which limits its value to an extent, and not totally authentic, as the author doesn't "really" become part of the working class, but just gets a glimpse of it for a few months. Still, even knowing that Barbara Ehrenreich "cheated" a bit (by providing herself with a car and start-up money, for instance), and also knowing that she could have said "game over" whenever she wanted to, it still took some guts, or at least good, old-fashioned, investigative journalism, to do what she did. And she should be commended for her efforts. Basically, 'Nickle and Dimed' gives us a small, but valuable, glimpse into the dark side of America, at least from a non-rightwing viewpoint (maybe the America described by Barbara Ehrenreich is what the Tom DeLays, Dick Armeys, and Dick Cheneys of the world want?). A side of America where people making MORE than the minimum wage, and even working more than one job, can't make ends meet. A side of America where health care is a luxury, not a basic human right. Where getting off your feet for a minute, or talking with a co-worker, is looked at as something called 'time theft,' a phrase that sounds like it came straight out of Orwell's '1984.' A side of America where one forfeits most of one's rights (to free speech, free assembly, freedom from unwarranted search and seizure, and more) when one becomes an 'employee,' of WalMart or whomever. Where workers can't afford to live near their places of employment, and public transportation is utterly inadequate. Where millions of people are one injury, illness, or mishap from disaster. And, possibly worst of all, where the vast majority of Americans don't seem to CARE, as long as they get their houses cleaned, their fast food served, and their clothes and toys produced and sold to them at low prices, with a minimum of hassle and government regulation, and by people whose true condition is kept out of sight and out of mind. Barbara Ehrenreich does us all a service by shining a spotlight, and focusing are minds, on the dark side of the American dream. Hopefully, as we all pull together as a nation after the tragic terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, we won't forget the millions of Americans who struggle every day just to keep their heads above water.
Rating: 
Summary: Blood pressure rising
Review: Nickle and Dimed has amazing insights regarding a world of work that too many Americans never see (or fail to see). From unhealthy business practices to amazingly inept supervisors to unnecessary living conditions, Ehrenreich's discoveries will simply tick you off! Her travels through a series of minimum wage gigs provide many valuable lessons to the reader. Don't miss this one!
Rating:
Summary: Barbara Ehrenreich Does it Again
Review: Those who follow the writings of Barbara Ehrenreich will need little convincing to give her most recent work "Nickel and Dimed: On (not) Getting by in America", a read. Those unfamiliar with her work should prepare themselves for a sensitive yet brutally realistic look at the incredible obstacles involved in the climb out of poverty, "welfare reform" (as we know it) notwithstanding. Educated as a biologist but better known for her socio-political writings, Ehrenreich embarks on a year-plus long plunge into the world of the working class with the intent of evaluating just exactly how feasable it is in financial terms to subsist on wages earned from unskilled labor. What I found most intriguing, however (and I feel most important) is Ehrenreich's ability to articulate the emotional aspects of service work and poverty that increase the burden for those striving to survive. These subtlties are not among factors considered by legislators who form policies regarding welfare reform. As a former service worker (I still bus tables for a banquet hall on weekends as I complete my dietetics internship) and social worker who has worked with employment re-entry programs, I am utterly amazed at how on-target Ms. Ehrenreich is with her observations. Unfortunately, those who may tend to read this work are not the ones who need to (see: Preaching to the Choir). I'd love to see someone sponsor a distribution of this book to: anyone who voted Republican in the last twenty years, CEO's of ANY corporation, or anyone who believes that anyone can "pull themselves up by the bootstraps if they just put their mind to it". For a real live look at life in the working-class lane, DO read this book. And then pass it on to someone that you know thinks differently about welfare reform.
Rating:
Summary: This book describes the lives of 100 million Americans.
Review: Ms. Ehrenreich's book perfectly captures the desperation and hopelessness that pervades the lives of the tens of millions of America's working poor. I should know, because I am one of them. Her attempt to live the life of undereducated mother with no funds and no job skills just returning to the work force is imperfect, of course. She could always go back to her middle class existence if things got too uncomfortable (which is exactly what she did). But her eloquence and humor is attempting to give the reader insight into the lives of america's working poor succeeds impressively. Ms. Ehrenreich's compassion for her coworkers and disgust at what corporate America has rendered in the post-modern, anti-union corporate monstrosity that we call The United States should be required reading for anyone who believes that hard work and hard work alone will provide the American Dream; ie a good home, a full fridge, and two cars. This is just NOT SO! Shame on corporate America for turning their collective backs on their workforce.
Rating:
Summary: Good if somewhat flawed investigative piece
Review: Writer Barbara Ehrenreich ("The Hearts of Men," "The Worst Years of Our Lives," etc.) a couple of years ago decided to leave her middle class background for a few months and find out first hand what life is like for "the other America," i.e., the working poor. What she reports in "Nickle and Dimed" is depressing but not at all surprising or new, especially if the reader has or is working in low-paid work. Ehrenreich began her low wage odyssey in Florida, then to Maine, and finally in Minnesota. She worked at a variety of jobs, including waitress, cleaning worker, nursing home employee, and Wal-Mart salesperson. She, like anybody else who is sole supporting and working for substandard wages, found that she had to work two jobs just to survive. She found in addition to being tired all the time, she was treated with virtually no respect by her employers. Her experiences will sometimes make the reader laugh, but more likely make the reader angry that the workers who make our economy work by doing the back-breaking labor get treated like dirt. Fortunately for Ehrenreich, at the end of her odyssey she went back to her comfortable lifestyle. Unfortunately for us, we have no idea whatever became of the people she met along the way, those who do not possess a Ph.D. like Ehrenreich and are destined to spend the remainder of their working lives in the substandard wage economy. The fact that Ehrenreich isn't truly a member of the working poor is the major problem with this otherwise excellent, well-written book. This reviewer believes the book would have been much better had the author spent time actually interviewing people who do this work day in and day out, year after year and then shared their stories. Such a book about low-wage workers, especially women workers in traditionally female occupations, has been written before and better some twenty-five years ago by Louise Kapp Howe in her book titled "Pink Collar Workers." Unlike Ehrenreich, Howe didn't pretend to be one of the subjects but instead got first-hand accounts of those who actually did the work. Ehrenreich should have done the same by interviewing both men and women stuck in the low-wage economy.
Rating: 
Summary: Preaching to her own choir
Review: I work in a restaurant. I found Ms. Ehrenreich attitude toward the "working poor" to be condescending and elitist. My sense from this book is that she doesn't think any of the co-workers from her grand experiment will read it a la " Those people? They can't/won't/don't read anything more than an occasional National Enquirer!" I want to suggest to all you Better-Than-Thou Yuppies out there reading this book in your self-sanctified sense of noblesse-oblige that the "serving classes" are people too - and that you might actually get better service if you treated them as such! In particular, might I suggest to you that if there are more than 4 of you in your dinner soiree that if you are indeed as affluent as your pretentions, that one of you pick up the entire ticket? Or if you insist on the bourgeoise pettiness of separate tickets, could you at least be so kind as to sit next to the person or persons with whom you deign appropriate to be on the same guest check? Thank you and Have a Nice Day!
Rating:
Summary: As usual, America leads the world in shock
Review: Trust the message and not the messenger. Before I cracked the cover, I was curious to discover what motivated Barbara Ehrenreich to undertake this investigation. My initial reaction was to see if I could ascertain the location of the black hole from whence she emerged. Where I live it does not require extraordinary powers of observation or extensive research to determine on average during daylight hours the sky will appear to be blue, and within that atmosphere there exists an underclass living at or below generally accepted poverty standards. Although I still don't know her point of origination, as I got deeper into the book, spurious methodology aside, it became evident her motivations were pure, and for me that was even more depressing. She works from a Marxist model where goods in excess of an individual's needs must be transferred to a central authority which then redistributes the goods to individuals with deficits, a governmental form that directly conflicts with prevailing attitudes. In each of her adventures - I never reached the point where it was possible to forget her near destitution was pretense - she established a set of ground rules affording the most advantageous conditions to success...and she still failed. She is an extremely educated woman; the intrinsic benefits of education will not be sublimated by saying it will be so. She is aware of the value of deferred gratification, she is acquainted with fundamental budgetary principles, she has inculcated experiences that will invariably facilitate reasoned decision-making. Public transportation is not an optional consideration many of the working poor. For all that it mattered, she could have leased a spanking brand SUV if gasoline was to be her only transportation consideration. Seeing a police cruiser brings about a different level of stress when you are riding around on fraying steel belted retreads in a deteriorating un-inspected, unregistered, uninsured, undependable relic. She sought housing with the inestimable comfort of knowing she had the first and last month's rent. I wasn't particularly concerned with her choice to forego roommates, since her limited timeframes in any location would only serve exacerbate another's difficulties when she packed up her notebook and she decided to move on. In any event, shared expenses does not radically change the predicament, such arrangements merely reflect another condition of subsistence conditions. The larger issue was her choice to abstain from integration with her test environment or interact with her coworkers on a meaningful level. She does, however, harbor a perplexing definition of homelessness. By my standards, living out of one's car parked next to your place of employment is a sufficient condition. In fact, Ms. Ehrenreich's ideological convictions tend to obscure the more compelling story. Virtually absent from her story are the very people she sets out to illuminate. A "doctrine of fairness" in relation to socio-economic viability has a jingoistic ring but it fails to account for the gated community mentality that lead to "a contract with America." Sentencing to the oubliette is not invisibility; the movement to eliminate programs targeted to provide assistance to the expansive segments of the population hovering around the poverty level was not based on economic necessity or ethical considerations. If her book serves to raise awareness for a segment of the voting public who may not have been cognizant of the contingencies of reduced social service programs, it has significant value, in spite of the methodology of the messenger.
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