Rating: 
Summary: Brilliant social reporting
Review: Ehrenreich went on location to report on the lives of working Americans in the supposed boom times of the late 1990s. Rather than being a reporter looking on from the outside, she actually lived the life of a waitress, a house cleaner, etc. This could have been patronizing crap in the hands of a different writer but Ehrenreich doesn't pretend to be doing anything except trying to figure exactly how people can afford to live on near minimum wage jobs. Her answer, they sorta can't. The statistics could have told us that, but, as Ehrenreich points out, no one really cares about numbers. Her reporting bring a world many of us don't see very much to life.
Great writing, a clear vision, and social conscience. What's not to like? I even didn't mind paying Barnes and Nobles' excessive price for the book to get it right away (sorry Amazon).
Rating: 
Summary: More about Barbara Ehrenreich than America's Working Poor
Review: In the final chapter, Barbara Ehrenreich writes "If I may begin with a brief round of applause: I didn't do half bad at the work itself, and I claim this as a considerable achievement." No doubt, Ehrenreich deserves some kudos, both for the self-sacrifice she made to investigate first hand the grueling lives of America's working poor and for her witty (but sometimes acerbic) articulation of her experiences. As I sift through the some 400+ reviews of her book, I think it's obvious that she has made a some difference by exposing the injustices and oppression of a whole underclass of hard-working, underpaid Americans.That being said, I couldn't help but feel like the book was more about Barbara patting herself on the back for her own journalistic originality and three month sacrifice, and less about any compassion she actually felt for the working poor or any bond she developed with her coworkers. Most of the book is dedicated to *her* hardships, her thoughts, and her fears, and very little about the emotions and struggles of the people that do this *every day single day*. Further, she rarely spends more than 2 consecutive sentences on any one "character", leaving them all as these thinly sliced simpletons. It's doubtful to me that she ever really established any bond with the very people she was championing. Even more insulting was the need she felt to expose her identity and mission to her coworkers before she quit each of her jobs. Was this of any relevance to them? Would they feel better knowing that she really wasn't one of them? Obviously, no...they probably felt deceived, embarrased, and ashamed. But did the feelings of her coworkers matter to Barbara? Not at all...it was all about her... I'd imagine there are much better books exploring this topic - "Amazing Grace" by Jonathan Kozol for example.
Rating:
Summary: A good enough place to start
Review: This book could've been better - it could've been written by someone who actually lost their professional stature and became a low-wage worker, such as an IT worker whose job was exported to India, rather than an elite journalist pretending to be poor. The author is also a left-wing writer whose previous work includes articles that compare the Protestant Reformation to the Taliban and defend assorted sacred cows of the Left (abortion, gay rights, etc.). The author's reputation as a left-wing pundit might help this book sell in Boston, but will likely hinder it from starting a real national debate about issues pertaining to the working poor. That said, someone had to write this book, and if an imperfect messenger took up the challenge, so be it. I worked for less than $10 for the first several years after college in the mid-1990s before the Boom, and I had no hopes of moving out of my parents' house until the dot.com's started hiring anybody with a college degree - 10 years later, salaries haven't gone up for those who lack the education or abilities to aspire to anything other than an honest day's manual labor, and I can scarcely imagine how they survive day-to-day. This book shows that they AREN'T surviving at all - they're dying a slow, agonizingly painful death. It is unspeakably wicked that society has abandoned these people. Many of these people aren't even poorly-educated or stupid - more than a few former professionals have been working at Wal-Mart these past couple of years, and while the situation might brighten somewhat in the coming months, the long-term trend is clearly to outsource professional jobs to India and other nations. Nickeled and Dimed isn't the perfect work on this subject, and its author isn't the best Jeremiah for our times, but until somebody else tackles the issue - preferrably an evangelical Christian author with undeniable born-again cred who can break the alliance between corrupt televangelists and Big Business and who can appeal to middle America rather than Berkeley and Boston - it's a good enough place to start.
Rating: 
Summary: The Working Poor of America get a voice
Review: This case study in, as the subtitle says "(Not) Getting by in America" was in many ways surprising. I thought I had a pretty good handle on the fact that there are people in desperate straits out there, that being in desperate straights is awful, and that it would be better if no one had to do it. But some of the problems that are described in this book were things I had never even thought of. One of her main contentions is that many of the working poor are borderline homeless, living, ironically, in expensive motels because they can never get far enough ahead to save the deposit for a real apartment. The lack of medical care and desperate penny-pinching wasn't surprising, but what struck me was that the author, daughter of a union organizer and left wing journalist, was consistently surprised at the importance that her co-workers placed on the jobs they were doing, quite apart from the monetary rewards or managerial incentives. This struck me as especially tragic, because it just reinforces the fact that most people take satisfaction in doing something well, and it's obvious from the lives these people lead that they aren't in the habit of shirking work. Shouldn't hard, quality work bring you a life with the basics we should all have? A thought provoking, if not especially surprising book.
Rating:
Summary: Terrific book, terrific writing
Review: I love this book. Some people seem to find it hard to believe that a person can't "get by" on minimum wage, or that people get stuck in low-paying jobs - some claim that "everyone starts at minimum wage in life, but they get promoted and make more", etc. That doesn't always happen, or even happen that often. Ms. Ehrenreich's book shows the struggles she faced in just a short term experiment, but imagine trying to do it for the long haul - there are other crises that occur in the lives of working people - such as, lack of medical insurance - a HUGE problem - and car troubles, to name a couple. In this book, Ms. Ehrenreich was working during the warmer months - God knows what she may have encountered during the winter in Maine or Minnesota!But this terrific book gives a glimpse into the lives of the working poor, even with everyone seemingly going right for Ms. Ehrenreich. By the way, several reviewers have claimed that she has 'contempt' for the poor, and has a snobby, yuppie-ish attitude. Nothing could be further from the truth. I don't know why people make false allegations in a book review, I suspect it's to dissuade others from reading the book and deciding for themselves. Read this book, you'll be glad you did. And pass on a couple copies to your state reps, senators, etc. Teach them a few things. I look forward to future works by Barbara Ehrenreich after reading this - she's wonderful.
Rating:
Summary: Free To Starve
Review: Barbara Ehrenreich takes an inside look at what it's like to be one of the "working poor." She spent three months at three widely differing locations (Key West, Portland ME, and Minneapolis, MN) trying to make a go of it working for 6-7 dollars per hour. In spite of her advantages of good health, education, a car, and a fund to supply her with a deposit on a rental; she needed to work two jobs, seven days a week to barely survive. Two points that struck me over and over were 1) no matter where you go, there is NO affordable housing and 2) during possibly the most prosperous decade in the century, wages never increased on the lower end of the job scale (fast food, retail clerking, waitressing, house cleaning). Though at almost every Wendy's and Wal-Mart across the country, there are big "Help Wanted" signs, the wages are and remain at a flat six to seven dollars an hour. The author does an excellent job of describing her various job duties, many of them far more complex than you would ever dream, and humanizing her fellow workers and her interactions with them. The crunch for many people is the inability to put up a rental deposit plus the first month's rent for a place to live. The practice of the large chains and fast food industry of deferring the first week's pay for a week or ten days is frequently devastating. Advising people to cook up a big stew and make their own bread to cut food expenses is quite beside the point when they have nowhere to cook. Ms. Ehrenreich points out general health is poor because they rarely have health insurance and cannot afford to take any time off for illness. The work is usually strenuous, and bad backs and pulled muscles are endemic. The author has a built-in bias against people who do not clean their own houses. Her trials and tribulations as a housecleaner are sometimes unintentionally funny, but the grueling work and the indignities suffered are very real. Her solutions are breathtaking in scope and possibly too sweeping to have a chance of fulfillment. However, the ever-increasing disparity between "working poor" and "lower-middle class" must be addressed and acted upon soon before we have a huge transient peasant class always on the verge of homelessness. The next time you drive by a beautifully "gentrified" section of your town, ask yourself "where did the poor people go?" And keep in mind, that person "flipping burgers at Mickey D's" is working long, grueling hours on their feet for very little pay. "Nickel and Dimed" is highly readable. It may make you uncomfortable, but it is well worth the time.
Rating:
Summary: *A Must Read for those Wanting to Change Things*
Review: Ehrenreich set out on a mission in this book and in my opinion she completed it. She desired to know what it was like to make it on minimum wage in the "real" world. Through hands on research she documented her 1 year episode of working job to job and being paid minimum wage in the state where she was at the time. Throughout the book Ehrenreich provides detailed observations of the working class and the corporate system displayed in certain organizations. This book is written for those in higher power to enlighten them as to the problems that the working class faces every day and to hopefully bring about change. I give this book 4 stars for its clarity in writing and its powerful message to spur on some sort of change.
Rating:
Summary: A new world for some who read it
Review: Having worked in Clearwater and Tampa, Florida since I was 16, I read Dr. Enrenreich's book Nickel and Dimed with a disturbing sense of nostalgia. As a white male in good health and mental health, without children or other dependents such as an ill or elderly relative, I am very cognizant now of how relatively well-off I was by being able to work nearly 60 hours a week to break even for many of those years. At one point I lived in a one-bedroom efficiency and had a friend paying half the rent to sleep on the couch. Thankfully my brother is a mechanic for when my car broke down and my friends would rescue me when I was stranded. A social support network, as Ehrenreich shows, is essential to survival, but you're still constantly trying to avoid going into the financial hole. The randomness of life's daily problems quickly counter the 'why didn't he or she (and more insidiously they) just X.' It just isn't that simple.
This is not just a book for those in sociology, public health, gender studies, and other social disciplines, although it would serve as an excellent reference for the newly anointed or long-term professional within these fields. No, this is a book that needs to be placed, thrust, or otherwise pleaded into the hands of those that make convenient assumptions and have strong opinions about the poor. It illustrates in a very straight-forward (and hilarious) way that the laziness, personal responsibility, and other such rhetoric associated with an incredibly difficult way of day-to-day life is mostly garbage.
Once the door to perspective is opened, and this book may be the key in doing so for many, it can make people see that there is an entire world out there beyond their social, religious, or political circles.
Peter Gamache, MBA, MLA, MPH
Rating:
Summary: An insightful look at minimum wage society
Review: Barbara Ehrenreich takes on the impossible task of becoming a low wage worker when, as she discusses in her introduction, she is far removed from this social strata financially, educationally, and socially. Her objective is to understand how a low wage worker lives on minimum wage. She works as a waitress, in a Alzheimer's facility, as a maid, and at Wal-Mart in three different cities.
It's difficult to extrapolate Ehrenreich's experience because her experimentation is contrived on many levels (she always has the funds to set herself up in an apartment, she's never truly desperate and has the power to literally walk out of one job and to argue with a manager at another) However, to the degree that she is able to immerse herself in the lower working class, she sheds insight into life at minimum wage.
I found two things interesting about Ehrenreich's "research." First is how callous the lower managers seem to be and impervious to the suffering of their employees. The second is that the people with whom Ehrenreich works don't seem to feel sorry for themselves or resentful of their place in the social heirarchy. As one of her co-workers says, "I don't mind, really, [having so little in comparison to others] becuase 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 nothing else, Ehrenreich's experiences (mostly unpleasant)will make the reader more aware of the minimum wage workers in the community and the poverty levels in which they survive.
Rating:
Summary: Gives meaning to the term "working" poor . . .
Review: Clearly, this book has stirred up some controversy but I don't understand necessarily why. The author goes "undercover" in Maine, Key West and Minnesota to work lowly jobs as a housekeeper, diner-style server and Wal-Mart employee to determine whether it was possible for someone going from welfare-to-work could earn enough for rent, food and transportation. Maybe the controversy flows from the author's resounding conclusion that welfare-to-work is flawed. Like it or not, the book raises a lot of interesting issues. At the outset, I will admit that the author's experiment is flawed - but the author admits that herself in the introduction. Flawed as it is, however, her "experiment" is remarkable and thought-provoking. As much as many people don't want to admit in their relatively cushy, internet-perusing, Borders-frequenting middle class existences, it is next to impossible to subsist on a $7 an hour job. While the author's political views are clearly made known, you do not have to agree with her politics to likewise conclude that there's "something wrong" with this country if it expects you to work a lowly $7/hr job and afford high rents, health care, food and transportation. Just do the math. That aside, I thought the most poignant aspects of the book involved her observations of the ailing health of many of her co-workers- even if they had health insurance (which was rare because most jobs either did not provide it or contributions to an employer-provided plan were too expensive), they could not afford the time off from work that taking care of their health would require - i.e., if you don't work an hour, you're not paid an hour. She also observed that, despite the obesity "epidemic" in America, many around her were literally starving. It was also sad when the author, working the women's department at Wal-Mart, observed one fellow Wal-Mart "associate" inquiring weekly whether a stained polo shirt on clearance had been further marked down from $7. The author concluded that the employee was required by Wal-Mart to wear and provide her own polo, but at $7, one full hour's salary, it was sadly too expensive for the employee to purchase. By placing herself in the working poor's unsanitary living quarters (at eye-popping prices) and walking a mile in their shoes, so to speak, by performing the often back-breaking work they do for peanuts and no respect, the author achieves her objective of shedding light on the plight of the increasing numbers of working poor in this country.
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