Nickel And Dimed By Barbara Ehrenreich: Chapter Analysis

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Introduction: Getting ready. Barbara Ehrenreich book Nickel and Dimed on (not) getting by in America talks about how people are living with minimum wages to support themselves and the daily struggle to survive. The idea came about from her Editor of Harper, Lewis Lapham; he wanted to know how a person survives living on low wages (Ehrenreich, 2001, p. 1). Ehrenreich was reluctant at first, but she took the challenge. She went undercover to find out how does a person survive on minimum wage, paying for rent, transportation and living expenses (Ehrenreich, 2001, p. 2 and 3). Mrs. Ehrenreich had to adjust her vocabulary, so she does not sound too educated (Ehrenreich, 2001). At the beginning of Ehrenreich 's book focus on the working Woman and …show more content…
On one hand, she had nothing to fear because no one recognized her. The first thing she experiences is the high rent in Key West, she could not afford and had to move further away from her job (Ehrenreich, 2001, p. 12). Second challenge to find a job and a job that will pay her living expenses. Ehrenreich speaks about her living conditions with bugs, confined space and uncomfortable (Ehrenreich, 2001, p. 12). Other challenges are the treatment from bosses, Co-workers, invasion of privacy and scrutiny. Many people living in poverty have to face these challenges every day, worrying about money, rent, and food. Living on minimum wage is not easy, in addition living every day in fear, for example, losing a job, how to spend the money wisely, feeding the children and paying for bills. Ehrenreich points out that companies will take applications and stockpile the Job applications for later use or walking individual walking into a business the present day to get lucky (Ehrenreich, 2001, p. 15). Mrs. Ehrenreich made a good pint, couldn 't be further from the truth (Ehrenreich, 2001). Business even today will collect applications just to keep them available to replace a worker that are fired or a worker quits, everyone is replaceable. She also talks about the stress in a workplace, wrong attitudes, and obscene language being used, and workers are not allowed to take breaks and strict bosses. This chapter also talks about how this affects a person 's health and wellbeing. Workers dissatisfied with working conditions and management. Manager or person in charge abusing workers, unsafe work conditions. Ehrenreich also points out working two jobs to pay for living expenses and how hard it is to hold two jobs with very little downtime. This condition can be found even today where one person is holding two jobs to pay for living expenses.

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