Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America
Registered by rem_THK-795888 on 12/12/2003
4 journalers for this copy...
From the back fo the book:
Millions of Americans work full-time, year-round, for poverty-level wages. Barbara Ehrenreich decided to join them, insired in part by the rhetoric surrounding welfare reform, which promised that any job equals a better life. But how can anyone survive, let alone proprser, on six to seven dollars 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 aid, and Wal-Mart salesperson. She soon discovered that even the "lowliest" occupations require exhausting mental and physical efforst. And one job is not enough; you need at least two if you intend to live indoors.
Nickel and Dimed reveals low-wage America in all its tenacity, anxiety, and surprising generosity -- a long of Big Boxes, fast food, and a thousand desperate strategems for survival. Instantly acclaimed for its insight, humor, and passion, this book is changing the way America perceives its working poor.
Millions of Americans work full-time, year-round, for poverty-level wages. Barbara Ehrenreich decided to join them, insired in part by the rhetoric surrounding welfare reform, which promised that any job equals a better life. But how can anyone survive, let alone proprser, on six to seven dollars 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 aid, and Wal-Mart salesperson. She soon discovered that even the "lowliest" occupations require exhausting mental and physical efforst. And one job is not enough; you need at least two if you intend to live indoors.
Nickel and Dimed reveals low-wage America in all its tenacity, anxiety, and surprising generosity -- a long of Big Boxes, fast food, and a thousand desperate strategems for survival. Instantly acclaimed for its insight, humor, and passion, this book is changing the way America perceives its working poor.
Journal Entry 2 by rem_THK-795888 at N/A in N/A, A Bookcrossing member -- Controlled Releases on Sunday, June 27, 2004
Released on Sunday, June 27, 2004 at n/a in n/a, given to a fellow BCer Controlled Releases.
Released to fellow bookcrosser pashmack.
Released to fellow bookcrosser pashmack.
Looking forward to reading this one- I've heard a lot about it. Thanks, yvi-1.
A very thought-provoking read. It's pretty sad that in this supposed "land of plenty" there are so many people struggling to survive on poverty-level wages.
Some noteworthy quotes:
"If you hump away at menial jobs 360-plus days a year, does some kind of repetitive injury of the spirit set in?" (p. 106)
"Most civilized nations compensate for the inadequacy of wages by providing relatively generous public services such as health insurance, free or subsidized child care, subsidized housing, and effective transportation. But the United States, for all its wealth, leaves its citizens to fend for themselves... (p. 214)
"When someone works for less pay than she can live on-when, for example, she goes hungry so that you can eat more cheaply and conveniently- then she has made a great sacrifice for you, she has made you a gift of some part of her abilities, her health, and her life." (p. 221)
Thanks for sharing this, yvi-1. I'm going to pass it along to another BCer who had it on her wish list.
Some noteworthy quotes:
"If you hump away at menial jobs 360-plus days a year, does some kind of repetitive injury of the spirit set in?" (p. 106)
"Most civilized nations compensate for the inadequacy of wages by providing relatively generous public services such as health insurance, free or subsidized child care, subsidized housing, and effective transportation. But the United States, for all its wealth, leaves its citizens to fend for themselves... (p. 214)
"When someone works for less pay than she can live on-when, for example, she goes hungry so that you can eat more cheaply and conveniently- then she has made a great sacrifice for you, she has made you a gift of some part of her abilities, her health, and her life." (p. 221)
Thanks for sharing this, yvi-1. I'm going to pass it along to another BCer who had it on her wish list.
Released Thursday, August 19, 2004 at USPS, mailed to another bookcrosser as a Controlled Release.
On its way to fellow BCer, violetaparra.
On its way to fellow BCer, violetaparra.
Wow! Thanks, pashmack and yvi-1, for letting me keep this as long as I have. I can't believe I received it so long ago, and only just now got around to reading it. That's the way of it in grad school, though-- you get no free time for any fun reading, and when you do, you reach for the most outrageous fiction you can find. Now I'm out of school for a while at least, and I'm reading "for fun" with a vengeance. Nickel & Dimed was a great read, in fact far more funny (at times even laugh-aloud funny) than I had expected, while still managing to make her point. And she does this quite well, from the restaurants in Key West to the hotel housekeeping jobs in Maine. My favorite section by far, though, related her experiences in Minnesota and the strange world of Wal-Mart. In the spirit of pashmack's noteworthy quotes entry, I give you some of my favorites from this last chapter:
"There's something wrong when you're not paid enough [by Wal-Mart] to buy a Wal-Mart shirt, a clearanced Wal-Mart shirt with a stain on it." (p. 181)
I particularly enjoyed her Zen moments when putting clothes back onto their hangers and shelves:
"...maybe the trick lies in understanding that each item wants to be reunited with its sibs and its clan members and that, within each clan, the item wants to occupy its proper place in the color/size hierarchy. Once I let the clothes take charge, once I understand that I am only the means of their reunification, they just fly out of the cart to their natural homes."
Hee hee!
Of course, amidst Ehrenreich's funny observations come really disturbing reality-checks regarding the state of affairs in our oh-so-successful society. But I was expecting all of that-- I wasn't expecting to see the humor in the dark side of our economy.
"There's something wrong when you're not paid enough [by Wal-Mart] to buy a Wal-Mart shirt, a clearanced Wal-Mart shirt with a stain on it." (p. 181)
I particularly enjoyed her Zen moments when putting clothes back onto their hangers and shelves:
"...maybe the trick lies in understanding that each item wants to be reunited with its sibs and its clan members and that, within each clan, the item wants to occupy its proper place in the color/size hierarchy. Once I let the clothes take charge, once I understand that I am only the means of their reunification, they just fly out of the cart to their natural homes."
Hee hee!
Of course, amidst Ehrenreich's funny observations come really disturbing reality-checks regarding the state of affairs in our oh-so-successful society. But I was expecting all of that-- I wasn't expecting to see the humor in the dark side of our economy.
I see so much of myself in Barbara Erenreich. I know first-hand how difficult entry-level work is to get, the commitment and sense of pride you put in the work, and how management either doesn't get it or has a completely different agenda than "upward mobility". Entering the workplace, it astounded me how much working beyond expectations is DISCOURAGED, how management fears workers "stealing time", even if it's toward achieving the job at hand. I can relate to her various co-workers, who are almost self-punitive in their jobs, pushing themselves to their breaking points for so little in compensation and stability. I'm so glad I finally got a chance to read this, I had heard so much about it. Thank you, yvi-1!
