Rating: 
Summary: A missed opportunity......
Review: Ms. Ehrenreich missed an opportunity to understand why low wage workers are able to cope and thrive in our consumer driven society. Instead she demeans them as victims of a corporate plot to keep wages low and workers constained. She never mentions that the global economy and competition is the major force in keeping wages and prices from rising. She argues for a "living wage law" but fails to acknowledge that this will put a significant number of low wage earners out of work. Finally, she forgets that immigrant workers in particular are better off earning $6/hr than they are in their own countries; and that they choose to work and live in the United States because of freedom and a chance to make a living. Most of the book is a recitation of Ms. Ehrenreich's own political and sociological views. She fails to put us in the shoes and minds of her subjects. Moreover, as a writer, she lacks insight into the human condition. This could have been a great book, instead it's a vehicle for 60's rhetoric.
Rating:
Summary: Nickel and Dimed...what a waste of money!
Review: It's an interesting idea -- to enter into someone's life and try to make it work. Too bad Barbara Ehrenreich couldn't leave her own preconceived notions about what life "should" be like behind. She is a bleeding-heart liberal masquerading as a social scientist. Still. like a train wreck, I found it hard to look away. Better luck next time.
Rating: 
Summary: Been There and Doing That
Review: There was this huge standing ovation in my mind as I finished this book, even though there is the good chance that nothing will come of a work of expose such as this. People read this, say that it is an eye-opener, but can only treat the people who work in these situations better. How long can they do that? How long will they remember to do that? It seems like there should be something more that we can do to stop this misery, but no one has any real solutions, except those who are harsh critics of the book. I have done all of the jobs that the author describes in this book, with the exception of waitress. And most of my adult life I have always worked two jobs (except when I was in college, where scholarships and loans kept me afloat with one full time job). And getting degrees doesn't seem to help; I had to work two jobs after getting my Associate's and two jobs after getting my Bachelor's. I was there, as a cook/dishwasher/drive-up window operator in high school when the restaurant sewage system backed up into the dishwashing area. (Unforeseen expense number one: New shoes--$10 at Kmart. I drove home that night barefoot.) I was there, working for Kmart when the restaurant closed down, cheering the KMART cheer (yup, they have one, too) and working as "price check person" for four departments one night, in addition to working as a back-up checkout person. I knew I had to quit working there when I was checking someone out and realized that I would have to run and check the price because I was supposed to be doing it. I then moved to Branson on the "60 Minutes" premise that the city was booming, and worked in a bookstore in the mornings and in junior management in the afternoon. I kept that up for two years before finally scraping enough money together for college and leaving because the corporation I worked for had me hire my own new boss without telling me (they said I would get to handpick my own assistant manager, so I thought that I was moving up) AND a part-time employee who would be getting paid what I was, all in the same week. I've slept with fleas on poor friend's floors, I have experience a domestic fight in the middle of a night where the force of the wife meeting the wall knocked plaster on my face. Now I am better off, but I am one major illness away from these people. As for those who think that these poor should budget better and knock out the frivolities, in some cases I agree. I have seen paychecks wasted on satellite television before. But most of the crowd could be summed up in the sentiment of one woman in this book, who says: "I don't mind, really, because I guess I'm a simple person, and I don't want what they have. I mean, it's nothing to me. But what I would like is to be able to take a day off now and then . . . if I had to . . . and still be able to buy groceries the next day." If you are only considering reading this book, buy it now and read it. Maybe you have some ideas on how to change things.
Rating: 
Summary: not really trying to get by
Review: Barbara Ehrenreich is that rarest of breeds, a 21st century American who still clings to the tenets of Socialism. At the suggestion of Lewis Lapham, editor of Harper's, she decided to try to see how folks moving from welfare to work might be faring and if she could survive on the minimal income provided by a series of low level jobs. Allowing herself a small amount of startup money, she went to Key West, FL; Orchard Beach, ME; and Minneapolis, MN; and found work and a place to live, with a goal of saving enough by the end of the month to pay the next month's rent. Her jobs consisted of waitressing and working as a hotel maid in Florida, working at a nursing home and a house cleaning service in Maine, and at Wal-Mart in Minnesota. Her essays about this experience first appeared in Harper's but are here expanded, barely, to a book length account in which we find out much about Barbara Ehrenreich, fairly little about the difficult lives of people she worked with, and nearly nothing about what she would suggest we do to make their lives easier. You see, one of the most distinctive things about the book is that Ehrenreich creates a fictional version of herself. She has to minimize her experience when she goes for interviews, has to disguise her true mission from co-workers and supervisors, has to (mostly) reign in her radical political views, etc. But even more, she is a completely atomized being with no family and no friends. This both makes her character in the book completely unrealistic and leaves her to spend all her time fixating on herself. Both are unfortunate. The lack of friends and family merely serves to point out what an utter impossibility it is for society to help people who have absolutely no support system of their own. One of her main problems is the cost of rent--which must be recognized as a significant problem for a society that expects people to be able to afford living quarters near the hot economies that are producing jobs. But it seems abundantly obvious that rent would be less of a problem if she was splitting it with a roommate, friend, or family member. In fact, this is so obvious that her endless complaining abut her rent loses its effectiveness because we realize how easy a problem this would be to alleviate. Equally maddening is her refusal to take advantage of the easiest opportunity that exits to find friendship and social assistance : church. At one point she actually goes to a revival meeting, but it turns out she's only there to make fun of the service. Later, when she arrives in Minnesota, she spends an evening with a woman who a friend has suggested she look up. As far as we can tell from the text, this is one of the few times she spends a significant amount of time, and has a lengthy discussion, with someone from the social milieu she's purportedly investigating (the rest of the time she just seems to race back to her hotel room to type up notes). But here she meets someone who has been on welfare, has been homeless, has actually packed up her children and moved to a strange city, without knowing she has a real life she could fall back on if things went badly. And what is this woman's primary piece of advice : 'Always find a church.' People from the church drove her around to the WIC office...and to find a school for her twelve-year-old girl and day care for her baby. Sometimes they also helped with groceries. But no, Ehrenreich refuses this advice, and its hard to take her complaints about the lack of available help seriously, knowing that her anti-religious sensibilities prevent her from accepting one of the most readily available sources of assistance.[....] Meanwhile, all we are left with is Ehrenreich. Ehrenreich at work or Ehrenreich in a hotel room. The rest of the working poor are merely a backdrop. Sure, she's working the jobs that these folks work, but she's hardly living the life they lead. She doesn't participate in their lives, neither individually by visiting their homes or having them over, nor communally by doing the types of things they do in their off hours. The occasional comment from these folks that Ehrenreich does share suggests that in the first place, they are not alone, as she is. Many live with family, or have spouses or steadies who work. And they are not particularly dissatisfied with their lives, nor do they resent their employers. Actually, most of them seem proud to be working, proud of their work, and proud of the companies for which they work. [...]Though for much of the book Ehrenreich engages in navel gazing that will only appeal to her hardiest fans, in the closing pages she offers a truly moving assessment of how she did, and the pride she takes in having, for the most part, succeeded is genuinely effecting. Here is a denizen of the upper middle class basking in the glow of just making ends meet; imagine how much more powerfully such an achievement must effect someone who has been living on government assistance for years. So we come to the end of the book and it seems reasonable to expect Ehrenreich to draw some conclusions about the whole experience and to suggest some alternatives. But, other than some self congratulations and a half-hearted pitch for a living wage (estimated to be about $14 per hour) and rent control, she doesn't bring much to the table. [....]
Rating:
Summary: Interesting but unbalanced
Review: I though this book was interesting, but it would have had more impact if it wasn't so one-sided. Were ALL of the workers truly honorable, hard working and oppressed, and were ALL of the employers truly stingy and mean spirited? I don't think so. There was almost nothing about the poor lifestyle choices some people made that were responsible (at least in part) for their being in these dead end jobs. The author went into this experiment with an agenda and seemed to ignore events that didn't fit in with her preconceived ideas. I'm glad I read it, but I don't have any desire to seek out other books by this author.
Rating:
Summary: Read this book...
Review: Go to the library, if you're not going to buy this book. But read this book! When I heard the author on a local (NPR) talk show, I knew this book was one I had to read. Having been a working, food stamp mother in the 70's, I had hoped for the sake of my own kids that things had changed. One of my late 20's sons, a hard worker, can't seem to get ahead despite a willingness to work two jobs and give up what some of think are basic things in our lives (a home of our own, a spouse and kids, basic TV, three square meals). For those of us in the family working management jobs or owning our own businesses, we're doing fine. For those in the family who are blue or pink collar workers, life is not so sweet. My son doesn't whine, but I do see his struggles with anger and depression (no negative results so far, thank God) as he suffers with feelings of inadequacy. This book clearly shows that not only have things NOT gotten better than they were in the 70's, they are getting worse as the haves squeeze more and more from the have-nots. In the company I retired from, the profit line keeps going up despite the economy. While working for the same company, in the warehouse, my son's wages somehow never increase although his responsibilities do. What's the problem? What's the solution? The problem is the same one we've had since the industrial revolution -- or since the lords and the serfs -- power, money, greed and manipulation. What's the solution? That's the tricky question...and the answer isn't in this book. Still, even without the Answer, please read this book. Those who have lived or are living the life described painfully in this book will find reading this both depressing and helpful. It isn't you, it isn't the economy -- its the greedy part of Big Business. Those who don't care will write this off, claiming that those who really want to can make it simply by working hard (not true), and that those of us who agree with this book are merely whining. If you don't care, don't bother reading the book. If you do care, after reading it, pass it along to someone who can't afford it.
Rating:
Summary: NICKEL AND DIMED: ON GETING BY IN AMERICA BY B.EHRENREICH
Review: AS A LISTENER TO NPR I RECENTLY HEARD THIS AUTHOR. SO I WENT ON THE NET TO PURCHASE THIS BOOK. VIA AMAZON.COM IT WAS JUST OK . AS A HEALTHCARE PROVIDER(A PROFESSIONAL NURSE RN) I AM WILL AWARE OF THE PEOPLE WHO JUST MAKE BY ON THE LOW SALARIES. MINIUM WAGE IE: MINIUM FOR WHAT? I WOULD SAY. IN THIS COUNTRY A LOT OF THE ENTER LEVEL JOBS ARE SO LOW PAYING. THE AUTHOR NEEDED TO STRESS THE IMPORTANCE OF EDUCATION IE COMMUNITY COLLEGE COURSES TO INCREASE THE AVAIABLITY OF BETTER LIFE STYLE VIA EDUCATION AND EDUCATION IS NOT A FOUR LETTER WORD. AS A PART TIME ASSISTANT PROFESSOR AT A LOCAL COMMUNITY COLLEGE I TEACH STUDENTS IN A SURGICAL TECHNOLOGY PROGRAM:CST. TO ADVANCE THEMSELVES IN THE HEALTHCARE MARKET. THE AUTHOR DID A ONLY SMALL JOB IE THE THREE MONTHS SHE NEEDE TO SEE THE "REAL WORLD" OF POOR TRYING TO STRUGGLE WITH THE JOB MARKET.
Rating:
Summary: Ridiculous
Review: Barbara Ehrenreich may have a PHD in Biology, but she knows nothing about economics. Why not just raise the minimum wage to $100 per hour? Then everyone would be rich. The book is too much emotion and not enough reason. Anyone with an understanding of and respect for the free market system will see that this book is garbage.
Rating:
Summary: She walks the walk, talks the talk
Review: I haven't read through all the reviews here so likely I'll be repeating some opinions. What's truly amazing about this book isn't the great writing, but the work the author, who is not especially young, did. That in her 40's or 50's she understood such strenuous menial work for considerable periods of time is just proof of her passion against injustice, which she documents herein so well. I always loved B. Ehrenreich's work, but this is the major opus. Buy it and read it as apparently, from her appearance on best selling lists, many are already doing. 5 Stars.
Rating: 
Summary: Working for a (bare) living
Review: Insightful look at what it really means to work in this country. The people that are so often not seen get a voice here, as Ehrenreich describes her experiences working, and trying to make ends meet, as a house cleaner, a Wal-Mart employee, and a waitress. It's a very illuminating picture of the truth behind the recent wave of prosperity we've experienced. This was a good book, and a fast read.
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