Rating: 
Summary: How the Other 80% Live
Review: This revealing look at the low-wage worker class does have many problems with methodology, which you can see in plenty of other reviews. Ehrenreich certainly took a chance by leaving her comfy lifestyle to live and work among the lower class. The authenticity of her investigation is definitely damaged by her use of a pre-paid car (shielding her from reliance on mass transit or rides from friends), while she had a backup emergency fund and the obvious ability to drop out of the project anytime she chose. My biggest qualm is the fact that Ehrenreich, even though she got some comparative insights by working in different cities, stayed in each one only for a month. This way she avoided the long-term problems of the working poor, especially the mounting debt loads, not to mention the long-term misery that comes when you realize you're not getting anywhere.On the good side, you will certainly appreciate the sociological insights Ehrenreich uncovers from inside the poor working class. Housing of course is the major killer, along with repetitive work injuries, the indignity of menial work, and the sense of isolation from the rest of the world. Ehrenreich also has some great and darkly sarcastic things to say about the bizarre working culture at Wal-Mart. Unfortunately, Ehrenreich sets the book even further back with a deficit in the likeability department. This is especially true when describing her stint at a Maid agency, when she goes on tirades about the snobbish owners of the houses she cleaned, which are not much different from her own house back in real life. Ehrenreich's conclusions about the working class in light of current economics and politics are generally accurate but a bit heavy-handed. Ehrenreich congratulates herself for her experiment even though, unlike the people she met in the trenches, she could easily get out of it. But in the end, this is definitely a revealing and often dismaying look at the lives of misery more and more people have to live these days, and Ehrenreich's perspective from the more privileged class is certainly useful. [~doomsdayer520~]
Rating:
Summary: decent, if lacking a little
Review: My overall impression of this book is that it was fairly informational, but didn't really stand out. It didn't drag on, and for a book of this nature that's a definite plus. I just felt that when it ended I wasn't as blown away as I had hoped to be. It was more like "Oh, ok, that sounds about right". I think the content is there if that is what you are looking for. If you want to hear about the basics one persons attempt to survive at the poverty level, then I would recommend this book. The book has its fair share of facts to back up a lot of her points, but I didn't feel like the book as a whole gives the reader a smack to the forehead like something of this nature should. I wanted to be disturbed. I wasn't.
Rating: 
Summary: A fantastic book!
Review: Not only does Ms. Ehrenreich go through with what she's sets herself out to do and in the process manage to produce an extremely relevant piece of work, her detailed descriptions, her sarcasm and humor, all makes this book a truly enjoyable read. What I most enjoyed is the author's willingness to reveal herself and her own short comings, and make this a truly personal story. No, she doesn't really experience being poor (how could she?) but she gets a taste of what it's like living under these conditions and makes observations only an outsider could make. All this she manage to share with the reader in a way that really makes you stop and think. And maybe even care.
Rating: 
Summary: Don't sit on the sidelines. Help these people out!
Review: Barbara Ehrenreich's book spoke the truth. Those of us who have "comfortable" lives treat the people in lowering paying jobs as "objects" and it's high time we stopped. One reviewer uses the phrase, "There but by the grace of God, go I." You had better believe it! And to those whiny reviewers who have nothing better to do but criticize a book that puts the plight of the poor out there for all of us to see, I have a few suggestions: 1. Be thankful you had enough money to buy the book. The real people portrayed in the book do not have your kind of "extra" income. 2. Drag your whiny butts up off your expensive furniture, which is under a roof that you sleep under safely night after night, GO OUT and help these people. There are millions of people who are working Sundays and holidays just so that they can make ends meet. They want to be at homes with their families, enjoying their families, reading books, but no, they have to work these jobs to be able to put food on the table for themselves and their children and hopefully make enough to put a roof over their heads that provides some level of comfort and safety. Those of us with the additional financial means, need to get out there and help these people. We weren't placed on this earth to see how much we could put into our Gucci knapsacks before we croak. We came into this world with nothing. We'll leave the same way. Just like the poor will do. What we can do though, is make their lives a little better in the process of living our lives. Give these people some of the extra that you have, anonymously. If you want gratitude for it, then keep it. Help a single parent as often as you can. God knows they are some of the hardest workers on the face of this earth. On Christmas Day, drag out some of your coveted cash and give it to a person who is working. They're not working on this particular day because they "love their jobs." They're working because they "have to." An additional $50, $100 or more can mean a lot to them. It may mean the difference between buying medicine they need and just toughing out an illness. It may mean the difference between being able to buy their child a Christmas gift and not being able to. It might mean the difference between paying the rent that month and being kicked out over the holidays. But don't do it because you want a "big thank you" from them. Do it because you care about helping out your brother or sister who is in need. "What you did for the least of my brothers, you also did for me." Was Ehrenreich the perfect author? No, but her book should make us all wince at how self-centered we've become that we take a haughty attitude to anyone we consider less than us in social standing. Get off the sidelines and help these people out!
Rating:
Summary: A Must Read for All Americans
Review: I always figured the poor only had to educate themselves (while working - night courses etc) to improve their lot and that those who didn't were not doing enough to help themselves. Nickel and Dimed taught me that the poor have no time and no money to pay for courses or to do anything other than scrape by. Yet, most of the poor described by the author appear to have intelligence, perseverence, kindness, and abilities. What an amazing waste of human ressources in a country that has no excuse. The book highlights the uncaring nature of so many that are better off. These people will always offer plausible excuses but the fact is they do not recognize and honor their good luck and do not share their ressources or adequately support merchants and manufacturers who sell Made in America (there is truth in the expression: There but for the grace of God go I).
I feel Ms. Ehrenreich's book serves as a great wake-up alarm particularly at a time when we begin to select our next President. Let's try to make the candidates understand thoroughly these issues and demand that a full range of steps and programs be started or renewed vigorously.
Rating:
Summary: A wake up call
Review: This book is an excellent look into the working poor in America. We follow the author as she tries to survive on the basic wage, her story and expieriences give light to Americans who media, and the wealthy try to forget.
Rating:
Summary: Politics and sociology brought together and made real
Review: I first learned of Barbara Ehrenreich when, as an OB nurse and aspiring midwife, I read her seminal 'Witches, Midwives, and Nurses.' I've been a fan of her writing ever since, and 'Nickle and Dimed' doesn't disappoint. To do the research needed to write this book, trying to determine if one can live on the salary of an entry level minimum wage job, Ehrenreich decided to do what was necessary to REALLY find out: she would live the life herself. She worked as a waitress in Florida, a cleaning woman and nursing home aide in Maine, and an employee of Wal-Mart in Minnesota - - - and came up with the not-surprising result that she had to work two jobs, seven days a week, and still almost wound up in a homeless shelter.
But the most enjoyable part of this totally bleak vision is Ehrenreich's inimitable writing style: sarcastic, outraged, funny, witty, and very, very liberal in her political outlook. She makes reading this expose a pleasure.
Rating:
Summary: Some eye-opening reporting . . .
Review: . . . about the life of a minimum wage service worker. Ehrenreich is a middle-class homemaker who goes undercover with a suitcase of clothes, $1,000 pocket cash and a car to live in several cities over a couple of years relying on the income from six jobs she gets hired for - ranging from waitressing to maid service to Wal-Mart clerk. She is frequently shocked and challenged by her voluntary step down the socioeconomic ladder to survive in a low-income world, and describes the difficulties faced in such jobs and the financial trap they can become. Though the book provides a reasonable account of life in minimum wage America, I did not like the way Ehrenreich often rambled on about her life back home, her feelings and reminiscences - making the book read more like a personal diary. Most of all I was bothered by her frequent cynical and socialistic interpretations of anything or anyone representing wealth, power or business in general. I would have liked this book more if she had kept to the story, and left her one-sided and at times, downright snobbish opining out of what was otherwise a revealing documentary. You can quickly glean much of this book by reading the last chapter ("Evaluation") where she summarizes her findings and analysis of the companies she worked for, and even indicates some solutions for workers wanting to better their lot (e.g. the value of keeping yourself in job shopping mode and informed of the local job market - not necessarily settling for the first job offered nor lingering with a less than satisfactory job. The same goes for finding better housing.) Also useful at the end of the book is a Reader's Guide, which lists questions for discussion.
Rating: 
Summary: Shame, Lewis Lapham!
Review: I, like others who have reviewed before me, had great expectations for this book and had read much about it before I actually got a chance to read it. Overall, I was appalled by Ehrenreich's sense of entitlement and the self-righteous tone that pervaded the book. Ehrenreich is undoubtedly a well-respected writer to be commended for undertaking this project and raising this issue to the public. Indeed, her book cites several well-respected studies, economists, and articles in order to clarify and lend credence to her points. However, as I read through the book, I found several things to give me pause: 1. Her reasons for selecting Minnesota over California as a destination:
p.121: "But warnings about the heat and the allergies put me off, not to mention my worry that the Latinos might be hogging all the crap jobs and substandard housing for themselves..."
2. Her contention that all Midwesterners are fat:
p.166 "All right, everyone knows that Midwesterners, and especially those in the lower middle class, are tragically burdened by the residues of decades of potato chips and French toast sticks..."
3. Her sweeping generalization about how poor people wear their hair: p.175 "Ponytails are common, or, for the characteristic Wal-Martian beat up and hopeless look, straight shoulder length hair, parted in the middle and kept out of the face by two bobby pins."
4. Comparing the ostracism she faced as a maid to being a minority:
p.100 - "Maybe, it occurs to me, I'm getting a tiny glimpse of what it would be like to be black." There may be a certain element of "tongue in cheek" here but these comments as well as others in the book feel disengenuous, particularly from someone who, as she points out several times throughout the book, has a PhD and a very comfortable background and safety net to fall back on. Ehrenreich can hardly suppress her glee at quitting her jobs and takes great satisfaction in telling her co-workers that she is leaving, that it has all been a farce, and she is going back to a life that they've never known. Ultimately, Ehrenreich hasn't done anyone any favors. Her book is merely a whiny, smug journal kept of a poorly executed experiment. It is unfortunate that someone with such potential and prominent backing (i.e. the editor of Harper's) turned in such a poor piece of journalism, raising nothing but speculation.
Rating: 
Summary: Bad Methods and no new Conclusions
Review: I can't say much about this book that hasn't already been said more eloquently by other reviewers, but I'll add my 2 cents anyway: I have major issues with Ehrenreich's methods. She went into the experiment with money in her pocket and a car. When she got a rash, she called her dermatologist in Key West, rather than hitting the E.R. like a real poor person would have to do. She passed on a $10-an-hour, 3-day-a-week job because she was too tired and frazzled to show up for the first day. She smoked pot, and then complained about having to take drug tests for employment, tests she knew she'd have to take when she toked up (and then she suggests that the only purpose of drug tests is to humiliate potential employees--couldn't be that employers don't want their employees doing illegal [and, to some, immoral] things, could it?) The really annoying thing, though, is the way that through the entire book, she marvels at the fact that she can actually relate to the people she works with. Oh my gods! You mean poor people are just like the rest of us? Who knew they had the typical human range of emotions and experiences? Um, I did. But then, I've never lived the life of relative privilege she seems to come from. I've never been as poor as some of her coworkers, but I've known people who were, and sure enough, they're just like you and me. Funny thing about that. I hope I don't turn out like her--whiny and oblivious--when I get my Ph.D. OK, so maybe she's been sheltered, and maybe the experience of "hard work for little pay" was good for her. But she takes on this "now I know what it's really like" attitude after her half-assed trip into poverty, pretending to have had some kind of revelation and referring to Marx like she's suddenly a real proletariat. But realizing that people are poor, and actually being poor, are two separate things, and Ehrenreich has done the former, but whether she has done the latter is debatable. I admit I would have cut corners and preserved my comfort, too--but unlike the author, I wouldn't try to claim that I had truly experienced a poor person's life. If you're one of those people who believes that the poor are lazy, or complain too much, or just plain don't exist, then you should read this book. However, if you happen to live in, or at least be aware of, the real world, skip it.
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