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Summary: An eye opener
Review: I had heard about this book and was anxious to read it. Parts of it are really depressing.I suppose the author did not want to share an apartment because her "cover" would be blown. Sharing living space might have been good for her. The micro-managing and surveillance at her various jobs is demeaning, but that seems to go with the territory. I seldom go to Wal-Mart as it is too far away and there are other discount places nearer, but I've lost respect for the organization after reading this. This book should make us all be kinder towards those who work in these jobs. Most of the time they are invisible to us.
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Summary: Ehrenreich Does It Again
Review: Once again, Barbara Ehrenreich gets right down to the nitty gritty in her role as a social critic. She is as brilliant and witty as ever in documenting the travails of those among us who are constantly being vilified by the white guys in suits for "burdening" our less than idyllic society. This book should be required reading for those who insist on blaming the victims of our lopsided economy, rather than the system that victimizes them.
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Summary: Trustworthy and honest account of tough work situations
Review: Ehrenreich always gives the straight scoop on what she knows. Particularly admirable is that much of what she knows in this book is stuff that she only just learned, stuff that didn't match some of her preconceptions! This book is based largely on notes she wrote at the end of workdays that were very draining, and so it gives a different perspective on stuggling Americans' worklives than one typically gets from well-to-do social commentators with the luxury of longer horizons.
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Summary: Walking a Mile
Review: I know my the name of my UPS delivery man--I know that he likes to play soccer, that he projects a cheerful and energetic personality, and has for the last ten years he's delivered to our office. I know the name of the woman who serves my friend and me breakfast each Friday morning at a chain restaurant. I've bought charity lotto tickets from her sons and know the story of her daughter who died when the insurance company insisted on using a cheaper lab. I know that when minimum wage increased, management cut her hours so her paycheck remained the same, but the workload increased. But I don't know anybody at the copy shop, the fast-food joints, or even the grocery store. They all merge with the background, human servants of the commercial machine upon which my life depends. NICKEL AND DIMED: ON (NOT) GETTING BY IN AMERICA tells the story of what a privileged and articulate writer experienced when she attempted to live as an "unskilled" working class person. Barbara Ehrenreich spent time in Key West, Maine, and Minnesota holding down jobs as a waitress, nursing home aide, cleaning woman, and Wall-Mart "associate." She attempted to live on the wages these jobs paid--without drawing on her skills as a PhD, author, or lecturer. Ehrenreich writes well. Her story engages the reader from the first page of the introduction to the final page of her "Evaluation" chapter. Her frustration leaked through the page and into me. I became enraged at the humiliating bosses and the abusive working conditions--and then I'd close the book and reflect that millions of people endure worse with no hope of writing up their notes and producing a best-seller from their experiences. While the anecdotes of Ehrenreich's experience were at least entertaining, her evaluation of the experience became the most interesting part of the book to me. She evaluated her experience through the Liberal lense of class conflict and power dynamics. It would be interesting to read a companion volume written by a "Conservative" journalist who ventured the same experiment. She discovered that while no job is truly "unskilled," the low wage jobs that she got made physical demands, some of which could be damaging if performed month after month--even for a physically fit person. She found few no rewards for heroic performance, that "the trick lies in figuring out how to budget your energy so there'll be some left over for the next day" (p. 195). She found that it is nearly impossible to earn enough money to survive on with just a single job, even during the tight labor market of 1999: "Something is wrong, very wrong, when a single person in good health, a person who in addition possesses a working car, can barely support herself by the sweat of her brow. You don't need a degree in economics to see that wages are too low and rents too high" (p. 199). She examines the pressures exerted on workers to keep them subservient and from asserting their power. She challenges the idea that we are a democracy if large numbers of citizens spend half their waking hours in what amounts to a "dictatorship" in the workplace. She also speculates on the depressive effects of the disempowerment to which the "working poor" must submit. Ehrenreich challenges the myth of the American Dream. Even her co-workers subscribed to this myth, working hard so that someday they, too, could live affluent lifestyles, failing to evaluate the extreme unlikelihood that they would ever leave the ranks of the working poor. Our last elected president came up from poverty--so did his opponent, Ross Perot. "This is America, anybody can become a millionaire!" That is the myth--one which keeps the workers docile. Ehrenreich believes that eventually that myth will be rejected: "Someday ... they are bound to tire of getting so little in return and to demand to be paid what they're worth. There'll be a lot of anger when that day comes, and strikes and disruption" (p. 221). Although she never actually uses the word "revolution," her book demand that it's time for the "Compassionate" Conservatives to stop telling the workers to eat cake and to pay attention to the growing inequalities in our society. Five stars for the courage to do the research and five for writing style. I only give her conclusion four stars because I believe her experiment deserved a better epilogue, more forcefully dispelling the post-Reagan myths about poverty and upward mobility. Regardless of your political/economic beliefs, this book demands to be read. Perhaps you'll evaluate Barbara's experiences and come to different conclusions ... or perhaps you'll find that you start seeing people who had been an invisible part of your life all along. Don't avoid this book, you owe it to yourself and to the people who stock your shelves, run the cash registers, deliver food to your table & clean your hotel rooms. (If you'd like to dialogue about this book or review, please click on the "about me" link above and drop me an email. Thanks!)
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Summary: The Treadmill
Review: Barbara Ehrenreich's book touches on a problem most of us would rather not think about. With out a doubt many of the poor profiled in her book had made bad choices and their substance abuse didn't help but here is the deal: middle class people do these things too. The difference is they benefit from the largess of well off relatives and always have more options. The author did a turn as a waitress, maid and sales clerk. Her experience was eye opening and put me in mind of Jack London's book "People of The Abyss.
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Summary: Working Your Way Down
Review: Nickel and Dimed - I just finished reading Barbara Ehrenreich's book Nickel and Dimed - On (Not) Getting By In America. Ms. Ehrenreich took on the task of going "undercover" in the blue-collar sector. Let me reword that - in the working-poor(WP) sector. Why are we all so poor if we are hard working people? That is an issue that is addressed in this wonderful book, and I appreciate the fact that someone is saying it. Unless you find yourself a member of this particular club, you have no idea all the complications that hold you back and hold you down. Nickel and Dimed is not a boring political thesis on the poor in America. It is more of a documentary. It shows rather than tells the story. I would recommend that everyone read this book. It should be required reading in high school and again in college. I have one small complaint - that the author portrays Christians in a less than favorable light. But, that is commonplace today. Christianity has morhped into some kind of snake-handling side-show attraction to either be viewed with awe or disgust, depending on the onlookers beliefs. The truth is, a simple faith in God has brought many working class Americans through the toughest of times with perseverance and grace. But, we're all just people trying to make it through. I hope everyone will get a copy of this book. It is an easy read. It will inform the people who think poor people are just lazy, and will infuriate the WP club members who will see themselves and realize, there is nothing they can do.
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Summary: An important book for these times
Review: I read this book the day after I read Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill's comment that "Able-bodied adults should save enough on a regular basis so that they can provide for their own retirement and, for that matter, health and medical needs." This book should be required reading for Mr. O'Neill and the rest of the Bush administration. Of course, people should try to save for their retirement, and of course, they should try to educate themselves. But, guess what? Someone still has to work at Wall-Mart, or clean hotel rooms, or take our orders in a restaurant! Should they try to survive on poverty wages for that privilege? As Ms.Enrenreich points out, many other countries help out their working poor with socialized medicine, universal child care, and housing subsidies. When are we going to show true compassion, and follow their lead?
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Summary: Excellent Job
Review: Ehreneich does an excellent job of exposing the myths of the free market for labor and the flexibilization of the labor force as a force for unabashed good. There is an utter moral bankruptcy in a system wherein CEO's of companies ( including one of the companies considered- Walmart) become phenomenally wealthy while the majority of employees become more impoverished in real terms. As most people know, the real wage in this country , though rising for the past couple of years is now back only to 1965 levels. So much for the wonders of the free market. The ideology of the free market is so shrill these days as can be viewed by drr8066's utterly off the mark critique ( I am getting a Phd in economics- and Ehrenreich is right for the most part- she has also been advised my many top notch economists) that this book is truly refreshing. The one thing which I do believe that Ehrenreich overstates is the excesses of government. While it may be true that the government is bureaucratic and heavy handed, it remains the only instutition in this country which can represent ( however imperfectly) the interests of the poor.
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Summary: consenus: the poor aren't poor because they wanna be
Review: Barbara's book brings to light what many of us who work in social services see time and time again. Yes, there are hungry children out there, regardless of how many of you choose to deny it. As a low wage worker, an individual can become so physically and mentally beaten down, tired and worn out that they become zombie like trying to work odd hours, keep crazy schedules, juggle childcare and transportation. The services may be there for them, but by missing one appointment (which you have no control over scheduling, you come when they tell you to be there) or deadline you are cut off, terminated, or dismissed. Single mothers lose jobs because they have to go to an appointment or stay home with a sick child. Doctor's slips don't count. Good job Barbara. This is journalism at its best.
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Summary: A Current Day Upton Sinclair
Review: This book is an Upton Sinclair-like chronicle of what it is like to try to find, hold, and live on minimum wage jobs. It provides an insightful view of what American prosperity looks like from the perspective of an inexperienced homemaker returning to the workforce. It's a small book - one that you can read in a sitting or two - but very powerful. The author admits her biases, and I would challenge anyone who thinks she overstates her case to be "born again" as an inexperienced, uncredentialed homemaker.
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