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| Nickel and Dimed: Undercover in Low-wage America | 
 enlarge | Author: Barbara Ehrenreich
Creator: Polly Toynbee
Publisher: Granta Books
Category: Book
List Price: £8.99
Buy New: £0.98
You Save: £8.01 (89%)
New (11) Used (13) from £0.25
Avg. Customer Rating:  13 reviews
Sales Rank: 22955
Media: Paperback
Pages: 240
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 7.6 x 5.1 x 0.7
ISBN: 1862075212
Dewey Decimal Number: 331
EAN: 9781862075214
Publication Date: June 18, 2002
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
| Showing reviews 1-5 of 13 | | NEXT » |
 Inside experience of the agony of minimum wage September 29, 2008
The most unsettling aspect of Barbara Ehrenreich's eye-opening foray into the world of the working poor is that the situation hasn't improved. In fact, it's gotten worse. The U.S. economy was booming in the late 1990s when she began her project, working anonymously in various minimum-wage jobs and reporting about the experience. Though she steps in and out of the lives of the minimum-wage workers who befriend her, she is a very powerful, effective advocate for them. In her book, she shows that living decently on about $7 an hour (still the minimum wage in most states) is impossible. However, Ehrenreich gives it a try in three cities, working as a waitress, housekeeper and Wal-Mart clerk. She reports from the front lines, where the working poor eat potato chips for dinner and sleep in fleabag motels, and she does the same. She finds that minimum-wage workers lead a dreary existence, toiling away in obscurity day after day with little hope, just getting by as long as they don't fall ill, need dental work or get in a car wreck. The terribly sad part is that many see no light at the end of the tunnel. getAbstract finds that Ehrenreich is a gifted writer with keen perceptions and a wry sense of humor. Her narrative flows effortlessly as she enlightens, educates and entertains. If only she had a magic wand.
Excellent and well researched July 28, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I found this book totally fascinating. It's basically the first hand experience of a middle class journalist who goes undercover to see if she can survive living on the minimum wage in America. The shocking truth is that she really struggles to. The author tries many things from working in Walmart to working as a cleaner. She is treated as number rather than a human being and the working conditions are disgraceful. To think this is American life and not life in some third worl country. What a brave woman the author was to go through such an experience. I take my hat off to her. Her book is insightful, informative and gripping. The world she lives in is one where the rich get richer and the poor stay poor. Reading this book demonstrates that even if you work hard, there is precious little chance of rising from the poverty trap. The American dream it ain't!
 Easy read on worthwhile subject. February 15, 2008
Giving up a comfortable life to research on the job, her only income her wages, sampling motel living with kitchen facilities comprising the local 7-11 microwave. Barbara Ehrenreich turns her hand to Fast Food, Maid Service and WalMart. Revealing the true horror that is the existence of the low wage worker: No health insurance /No union/No dignity.
Another great expose of those wicked multinational corporations and their exploitation of the masses in general, both workers and customers.
 Interesting but flawed October 21, 2005
4 out of 5 found this review helpful
An interesting (and at times outraging) account of life in the low-wage employment sector, but Ehrenreich's liberal middle-class attitude is often patronising and detracts from the point of the book. She would have served her purpose far better had she stuck to an objective account of her experiences, as opposed to the slightly superior air she assumes as a member of the middle-class intelligentsia who is merely slumming it for a while.
She makes a few mistakes - I think, even though it is a good February 7, 2005
10 out of 12 found this review helpful
book - it was time that the issue was adressed, however, I think she made a few mistakes in her approach.(1) Starting out is always hard and it takes more money until you are settled in a certain routine - by switching jobs too often she does not acknowlege that. (2) I was a single mom with three jobs and went to college - looking back I have no idea how I did it. I did not get state benefits because I was working, but I managed to pull myself out of the swamp and I am "middle class" now, even though I was really poor (and eating spaghettis out of a tin if I had to) (3) Her approach of life-style is too much middle class. You can get used to everything, really, also to living in a car. Once, to save money (before I had a baby) I lived in a former bathroom, barely big enough to put in my bed. I did not feel deprived after a while - you just get used to things. (4) I think the poor use different tactics and approaches than she does. At least I was for sometime sharing a bedroom when I was in college and the rent was unbelievable high. I always picked restaurant jobs if I had the chance because usually you get one to two meals a day, so that saves money, too. I bought a lot of stuff second hand. If I was running short of money, I'd sell some CDs or stuff. I always got by - on very little money. But it was interesting!
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