Module 3- Nickel and Dimed

Nickel and Dimed presents an interesting but somewhat flawed analysis of the hardships experienced by the people who live practically their entire lives on poverty-level wages. Though Barbara Ehrenreich looked to emulate the life of an extremely low-income worker, she was unable to fully portray this way of life. In some instances, Barbara opted to take a lower paying job at Wal-mart as opposed to attempting a longer workday at a plumbing store. If she were truly attempting to survive on minimal wages, this would not have been an option. Her rational for taking this job offer was that, “…given Wal-Mart’s position as the nation’s largest private employer, whatever I experience there will at least be of grand social significance.” (pg 149) Based on this decision she was unable to afford to even afford the relatively low living costs in Minnesota.

An interesting point brought up by Ehreneich is the difficulty in even acquiring a job in supposedly booming job markets. Often, she finds, job ads are unreliable as they are sent out and published even when no jobs are actually available. “…the employers’ insurance policy against the relentless turnover of the low-wage workforce. Most of the big hotels run ads almost continually, if only to build a supply of applicants to replace the current workers as they drift away or are fired…” (pg 15) Once Ehreneich finally manages to get hired, she finds that this is indeed true among many of her jobs. For example, she finds that when she is first hired as a maid, co-workers are reluctant to get to know her because they assume she will be quitting shortly. “Forty minutes go by before anyone acknowledges my presence with more than a harried nod.” (pg 71) For those who find themselves struggling to survive with little income, this type of experience will only further isolate them from society. Not only are the maids not permitted to interact with their actual customers, but their employers also treat them as less than human with little opportunity to initially bond with their coworkers. For somebody down on their luck, especially when they are first attempting to establish themselves at a new job with few connections, this could easily discourage them from future efforts to find better jobs.

Despite some of the shortcomings of her study, Ehreneich was able to assume some of the attributes of a low-income worker. After a few weeks successfully learning to navigate her job at Wal-Mart, she finds that a minor confrontation with a new co-worker who interrupts her daily routine leads to one very un-Barbara like mindset. “What I have to face is that ‘Barb’ is what I was called as a child, and still am by my siblings, and I sense that at some level I’m regressing. Take away the career and the higher education, and maybe what you’re left with is this original Barb, the one who might have ended up working at Wal-Mart for real…” (pg 169) What Barbra is attempting to confront is the fact that anybody can end up in this low-income employment situation, not necessarily by his or her own shortcomings. Anybody can find himself or herself caught up in the stress of constantly trying to make ends meet financially.

The one key component that seemed to serve as the glue that held the lives of many of the struggling workers together was family. Often, these workers were able to afford their otherwise unaffordable rents by sharing the cost of living with both immediate family members and added “family” such as boyfriends and girlfriends who also worked similarly paying jobs. “Almost everyone is embedded in extended families or families artificially extended with house-mates.” (pg 79) Without these connections, people would not be able to survive on these wages. The individuals forced into this life often find themselves crammed into apartments and trailers well above a comfortable occupancy level.

The most disturbing factor of this entire book is the lack of social mobility that exists for this class. The things taken advantage of in the middle class such as social capital in the form of networks with doctors and lawyers do not exist for the lower class. Ehrenreich was able to draw upon this form of capital, even during her summer, when faced with an otherwise costly skin condition. In addition to this, the middle class often has superior health benefits in comparison to the meager health benefits provided in the book. For someone in the lower class, such a skin condition could have easily set them back multiple weeks of pay, possibly eating into their rent money. Such inequality exists between the classes that as Barbara put it in regards to the struggling lower class, “they are bound to tire of getting so little in return and to demand to be paid what they’re worth. There’ll be a lot of anger when that day comes, and strike and disruption.” (pg 221) One day, the lower class will have to join together and take a stand. Overall, I think Barbara Ehrenreich does a good job in getting the message out about the impossible struggle undertaken by such a large percentage of the American population every day in a form that is easily read by the middle class.