Most people in the middle and upper classes of American society believe that low wage workers are where they are due to multiple reasons, such as drug use, laziness, or other mistakes. This thought has been part of society for many years, and as a result there is often little pity, and little help for the poor. In the book, Nickel and Dimed, the author, Barbara Ehrenreich, an established writer, leaves her comfortable life, and lives and works the life of low wage worker, in order to shed light on the true nature of the lower class. As Barbara struggles throughout the time of her social experiment, she discovers how the difficulty of finding housing, as well as the time consumption, and wear and tear of low wage work, make it difficult for
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In Key West, Florida, the cheapest place she can find, without sacrificing her privacy, is around $500 per month. Working as a waitress, she believes she can afford this, but she realizes, about half way through the month that she will not be able to make her payment. In order to get the money she needed she got second job at another restaurant, leading to outrageous hours and incredible amounts of stress. Barbara experiences a similar scenario in Maine. Here she looks for two jobs right off the bat, knowing this will be the only way she will be able to afford any kind of housing. The rent in Maine is much worse than Key West, with the lowest monthly payments being around $1000 per month. She resorts to staying in a motel and paying rent weekly. Once again, Barbara is left working two jobs and still barely scraping by. The last city she goes to is Minneapolis. Here she cannot find any affordable monthly rents. The cheapest thing she could find was a motel with a weekly rent of $295. Knowing she will not be able to afford that, even with two jobs, Barbara ends her stay early. Her experiences show that low wage workers can barely scrape up enough money for food and housing, let alone children or education. This is a large part of why the lower class cannot get out of the whole they’re
In Key West, Florida, the cheapest place she can find, without sacrificing her privacy, is around $500 per month. Working as a waitress, she believes she can afford this, but she realizes, about half way through the month that she will not be able to make her payment. In order to get the money she needed she got second job at another restaurant, leading to outrageous hours and incredible amounts of stress. Barbara experiences a similar scenario in Maine. Here she looks for two jobs right off the bat, knowing this will be the only way she will be able to afford any kind of housing. The rent in Maine is much worse than Key West, with the lowest monthly payments being around $1000 per month. She resorts to staying in a motel and paying rent weekly. Once again, Barbara is left working two jobs and still barely scraping by. The last city she goes to is Minneapolis. Here she cannot find any affordable monthly rents. The cheapest thing she could find was a motel with a weekly rent of $295. Knowing she will not be able to afford that, even with two jobs, Barbara ends her stay early. Her experiences show that low wage workers can barely scrape up enough money for food and housing, let alone children or education. This is a large part of why the lower class cannot get out of the whole they’re