Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America

Rating:
Summary: Hard to put down but limited in view
Review: I wanted to fully recommend this book because I completely agree with the premise that poor people cannot get out of poverty in the USA unless something extraordinary happens. We need affordable housing and a liveable wage for all. Ehrenreich makes the case for this by recounting her stories. I hope people who never see the working poor can read this book and take some actions to assist.
I didn't give 5 stars because I disagreed with the personal biases against religion and for smoking that the author espouses.
I was dismayed that BE went to a a tent meeting and then used that experience to show what religion does. My church works on justice issues; right now we subsidise a family of a mother and 4 children by providing housing. Jesus can be called a socialist and many people I know feel called to work to help the poor.
I teach teenagers and I'm glad that there is drug testing. Many young people are addicted and that limits their choices and starts them on a downward spiral. I learn much from the young people about the culture of poverty and I've worked in it when I was younger but I still don't know how to change our system except as I relate one on one with each student. Read the book for an interesting view of life in the US but be aware that the problems of poverty are not simple.

Rating:
Summary: Seeking enlightenment?
Review: I thought I "got it." The 'rich' were the bad guys who wanted far more than their rightful percentage of the goods and services. Ehrenreich demonstrates, through her personal journey, that I, steadfast member of the middle class, am being carried by the millions of minimum-wage, benefit-less workers all around me who make those "bargains" at chain discount stores and restaurants possible. Would I now pay more per product so that people can have medical care and live in safe neighborhoods? Yes, I would.

Rating:
Summary: Awesome
Review: Barbara Ehrenreich has written a searing masterpiece, outlining the hurdles every low income individual must face as he or she seeks to find a job that will pay enough to cover one's basic requirements for food, housing, and transportation.
The author's personal journey into the world of the minimum wage earner vividly tells of the obstacles and often terrors that face anyone trying to move out of poverty. She relates her experiences as a waitress in a second rate restaurant; as a "nutritional aide" in a for profit nursing home; as a housecleaner and as a Wal-Mart worker. And throughout she must grapple with finding affordable housing (from run down motels to seedy trailer parks) and getting enough to eat at prices her wages can afford.
The book left me feeling guilty and depressed at my own behavior as I relate to service industry workers. An avowed liberal, I have always believed we must increase the minimum wage; get better benefits for low income workers; and allow unions to represent laborers at all levels. But this book makes it eminently evident that that is not enough. As a nation we simply have to eradicate the vast wage differentials between rich and poor....and equally important, we must put clean, safe and affordable housing on the front burner as an absolute national priority.
Thank, you Barbara Ehrenreich, for focusing

Rating:
Summary: If you didn't know by now...
Review: Ehrenreich doesn't claim to know answers as to how to combat the low-wage problem, but she sure describes her experience in a concise way. Obviously, average low paid workers are not in her position - they have other issues to dwell upon besides shelter and food. However, at the bare bones minimum, she gives it to us like it is - you need to use your imagination to add on kids, child support, drug problems, etc. Go wild and see what you come up with. She does not claim to offer solutions to the issue - as free thinkers, we need to brainstorm new ideas to fight, whether you are a middle class person, or a member of the under class. Her analysis of labor unions is right on - what has happened to them, anyway? They teeter on the fence if they are worth a damn these days, and on the other side when they aren't. Unions and their legacy of hard struggle for the common worker died many years ago. If anything, this should be a wake up call for loyal unionists everywhere.

Rating:
Summary: A classic piece of journalism
Review: This book will be one of the prime documents in the coming struggle for a living wage. It's all there, the desperation and degredation of being part of the working poor. I know having been one of them for a large part of my life. We were always told in the 50's and 60's that communists considered the people as ecconomic assets. They didn't tell us that capitalists thought of us in the same way. There to be used until they don't want you anymore and then thrown on the tip. If you don't believe it just think about how you'f make it if you lost your good job. As I write this the only factory in my town is moving production to China. 500 employees are losing their jobs in November. It could happen to you.

Rating:
Summary: A Pocketful of Quarters
Review: Barbara Ehrenreich has really got guts to enter the working world raw in her mid-fifties, and to carry off this massive project of sampling life in various States in minimum wage America. The Contract with America - I never read the fine print, did you? But we all know that freedom of contract is a hallowed American belief. Therefore, as one of my immigrant co-workers used to say thirty years ago, in my own extremely youthful minimum wage years - "I sell myself to company for eight hours." I never took it quite that way, although my pride demanded that I work my hardest. When I put on my waitress's apron, I had my escape route all planned, and it worked. Some assistant night manager wasn't going to give me my identity. But indeed, the "girls" are treated pretty much the same way today as they were then. I have a 1970 college work-study diary to prove it. In fact this is what makes the observations in this book ring so clearly true. The one HUGE difference is today's lack of safety net, smugness about how deserving we wealthy are, and lack of concern about the relatively greater poverty in which people find themselves. The gap has widened in some ways. It is tricky to get out of poverty, but not impossible. Times change, and America is due for a good hard look at itself. I would like Ms. Ehrenreich's editor, Lewis Lapham, to assign someone to the male side of the minimum wage question. And while we're at it, we should check on why we have such a big prison population. Maybe America is one sick puppy, maybe it just needs to be better trained.

Rating:
Summary: Good book, but what a tough crowd some of you [...]are
Review: I read this surprisingly light-on-its feet little book in two sittings. Though I was often charmed by the author's candor, and even more often delighted by her humor, I must admit I was rarely surprised by her discoveries. Nevertheless, hers was a courageous odyssey by any measure. More important, she draws attention to the elephant in the living room that is poverty in America. Yes, as some reviewers have written, it's an "old story". But so old that it doesn't still need to be told? Forget it. Does it cry out for a new way of telling it? Absolutely, and that's what the author has done, in a vibrant, compelling way. Look, this book's Newsweek review was one of the rare instances when the poor even rated a mention in that magazine. I honestly wonder what people who call this an "old story" were expecting.

Rating:
Summary: Insightful and Moving -- Well Worth the Time to Read
Review: In many ways, this book has changed how I view service workers around me and how I act with them. I have recommended the book to several friends who agree that it quickly changes perceptions about cashiers, waitresses, cleaning staff, etc. Unlike some of the other Amazon reviewers, I strongly believe that had the writer had more time on each job, her perceptions would have only been more acute. She does an admirable job at getting the reader inside the heads of service workers who are indeed "invisible" to many middle- and upper-class Americans, and for each seemingly overwhelming challenge she encounters, the reminder is frequently made that for Americans of color and/or immigrants with poor English skills, the obstacles are higher. In today's mobile society, the flippant response that the poor should "stay with family" doesn't fly, particularly if "family" is even poorer. Personally, I own my own business -- I have money in the bank for now and for my retirement, yet I read this book with a feeling of "there but for the grace of God go I." The book helped me to count your own blessings and to be more forgiving in your dealings with others.

Rating:
Summary: Waste
Review: This book is a complete waste of time, paper, and money.

Rating:
Summary: Good story, flawed conclusion
Review: Pretty accurate description of everyday life for certain classes, but the final conclusion - impossible to survive - is clearly doomed. Most people in her situation would likely consider staying with family / friends or shared accommodations to save up certain amount of money, and one month on a job is not nearly enough to draw long term conclusions... But overall it is a pretty decent book, well written; and offers good portrait of a part of American life.