NICKEL AND DIMED BOOK REPORT Barbara Ehrenreich is a journalist who wrote the book Nickel and Dimed. She goes undercover to see how it feels to work for $6 to $7 an hour. She leaves her regular life to explore the experiences of a minimum wage worker. Ehrenreich travels to Florida‚ Maine‚ and Minnesota‚ looking for jobs and places to live on a minimum wage salary. At one point in time‚ she had to work two jobs to makes ends meet. As she worked all these jobs‚ she discovered many problems in the
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the end? Barbara Ehrenreich would like to know the answer to this question so she suggests to a famous editor that she could live in the life a minimum wage worker for a couple weeks. Low class workers may work several jobs for up to a full day with little pay and still not be able to make ends meet and support themself or their family. They work hard‚ but still struggle to find their place in society because they are not receiving enough money. In Nickel and Dimed‚ Barbara Ehrenreich makes it
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isn’t always as easy as getting a job‚ making money and paying you bills. In her fascinating book on extended essays Nickel and Dimed‚ Barbara Ehrenreich poses as an unskilled worker to show the struggles encountered everyday by Americans attempting to live on minimum wage‚ "matching income to expenses as the truly poor attempting to do everyday." (6) Ehrenreich gave herself three rules she had to live by and they were: 1. She could not use her education or professional skills to land a job‚ 2.
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Nickel and Dimed Barbara Ehrenreich used her book Nickel and Dimed to illustrate her job assignment to live in the shoes of and‚ write about her experiences as a minimum wage worker in America. Ehrenreich goes to live in Key West‚ Maine‚ and Minnesota and works low wage jobs‚ sometimes more than one at a time. The point Ehrenreich is trying to make is that it is almost impossible to live a decent life in America with one‚ let alone two jobs paying very low wages. It is tough to be a low wage
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Why Should We Care In her expose‚ Nickel and Dime‚ Barbara Ehrenreich shares her experience of what it is like for unskilled women to be forced to be put into the labor market after the welfare reform that was going on in 1998. Ehrenreich wanted to capture her experience by retelling her method of “uncover journalism” in a chronological order type of presentation of events that took place during her endeavor. Her methodologies and actions were some what not orthodox in practice. This was not to
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Sarah Levy Professor M.Marca English 97 2 December 2008 Shame and Humiliation Nickel and Dimed‚ written by Barbara Ehrenreich has been published in 2001 for the first time. This book explains and describes the condition of the working poor in United States in the 21st century. To write this book the author who is a well-known journalist at the New York Times decides to experience being a low-wage worker for a few months. She gives up her middle class life to become and live as a working poor
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to survive in this rigged economy? Our economy is set up to benefit the middle-upper class and to take away from the lower class. As we stand by and say to the lower class citizens “get a job”‚ “work harder and longer”. In Nickel and Dimed‚ Barbara Ehrenreich proves that minimum wage cannot sustain the quality of life that is perceived as the American Dream let alone provide for a livable life at all. No matter how hard you work or how determined you are it just isn’t possible to live and prosper
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Dr. Jennifer Graham EN105 12 November 2010 Value of America The purpose of this essay is to raise readers’ awareness‚ causing them to think differently about American values. Furthermore‚ the value one places on material wealth. Ehrenreich (Ehrenreich 156) and Eighner (Eighner 172) exposed problems with the equation of wealth equals happiness. They also excluded the idea that‚ in America‚ possessing a job means economic security‚ happiness‚ and a sense of achievement in life. In employment
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political opinions will continue to progressively be suppressed. 2. “Serving in Florida” Question 2 In the essay “Serving in Florida”‚ Barbara Ehrenreich describes individuals she works with through direct comparisons of how they adapt to survive in poverty. Ehrenreich speaks with her co-worker Gail‚ who is “thinking of escaping from her roommate by moving into the Days Inn” which is 40 to 60 dollars a day‚ forcing Ehrenreich to reflect on her own living situation‚ only “made possible by the $1
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By reading “Nickel and Dimed” by Barbara Ehrenreich‚ I learned being a minimum wage worker is extremely difficult. I wouldn’t recommend it. It’s hard for a minimum wage worker to find a place to live because they can’t pay the security deposit so they get stuck staying in a hotel or moving in with a friend or a family member. For example‚ Tina and her husband don’t make enough money so they had to stay in the Days Inn paying $60 a night. Getting stuck paying this every night would be impossible.
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