Destroy the poor in entry level unskilled jobs

Nancy Sherer reviews...

Nickel and Dimed

by
Barbara Ehrenreich

Nickel and Dimed is a witty, accurate portrayal of the plight of the working poor in America. Ehrenreich's writing ability is exceeded only by her insightful analysis of why we need to rethink current attitudes about who the working poor are, and why they can't pull themselves up by the apocryphal bootstraps.

Ehrenreich, a successful writer, steps out of her upper middle class world to take on the challenge of living on entry level wages of low skill jobs. Her accounts of being a waitress, a cleaning maid, a Walmart employee and more shows not only the tragic and humiliating aspects of being one of America's working poor, but also the funny, and even the heroic nature of those who serve our food, stock merchandise, clean and toil on subsistence wages. Even if you already know from experience the challenges that Ehrenreich faced, this book will change the way you look at (not) getting by in America.

Get it from your local bookstore, or from your library. It is good reading.

Buy It Now

Nickel and Dimed
by Barbara Ehrenreich

Nancy Sherer

Last Modified: Sunday, 28-Jun-2009 23:23:07 EDT