It was certainly nice enough of you to decide that you shouldn't judge a class of people until you'd walked a mile in their shoes.but you only managed to walk about three paces before your feet hurt and you decided you had seen enough.Ī real poor person does not have a couple grand to 'start' with, or to stay afloat between jobs, after finding his or her working conditions intolerable and suddenly quitting.

The experiences you had while pretending to be a poor person may have instilled in you some amount of sympathy for poor people, but you will never really know what it's actually like to be poor. You were slightly offended that nobody saw through your waitress costume you assumed that smart people are visually recognizable, and it didn't seem to occur to you that real poor people might also be smart and educated.ĥ. You also were surprised that the aforementioned coworkers were neither impressed nor appreciative that you turned out to be a wealthy, highly educated person writing a book about how hard it is to be a poor person.Ĥ. When said vacation was over, you told your coworkers: 'Surprise! I'm not a poor person after all! I'm going back now to my comfortable life!'.and then you were surprised that those coworkers were mostly worried about the fact that they'd have to work the next shift with one less person.ģ. You are a wealthy, highly educated person who went on a half-assed, anthropological slumming vacation.Ģ. How do I resent thee? Let me count the ways:ġ. Instantly acclaimed for its insight, humor, and passion, this book is changing the way America perceives its working poor. Nickel and Dimed reveals low-wage America in all its tenacity, anxiety, and surprising generosity-a land of Big Boxes, fast food, and a thousand desperate stratagems for survival. And one job is not enough you need at least two if you intend to live indoors. She soon discovered that even the 'lowliest' occupations require exhausting mental and physical efforts.

But how can anyone survive, let alone prosper, on $6-$7 an hour? To find out, Ehrenreich moved from Florida to Maine to Minnesota, taking the cheapest lodgings available and accepting work as a waitress, hotel maid, house cleaner, nursing home aide, and Wal-Mart salesperson. She was inspired in part by the rhetoric surrounding welfare reform, which promised that any job equals a better life. In 1998, Barbara Ehrenreich decided to join them. Millions of Americans work full-time, year-round, for poverty-level wages.

Nickel & dimed by barbara ehrenreich