Nickel & Dimed: On (Not, Getting By In America By Barbara Ehrenreich

The United States of America, the land of the free and the home of the brave. Where any man, regardless of background and culture can come and create his own success. What is commonly known as the american dream. But is this statement that the U.S was built on really true? Or is this the fecond put on to draw in the the hungry and hopeful? Specifically talking about the immigrants that suffer from a low standard of living. A rent payment, the blinking fuel light in the car, the grocery list, all of these are everyday things one must deal with in the U.S. today. But what happens when there is not enough moeney from one job to cover and finance one or many of these multiple neccessities?

Throughout the course of the semester, we as a class were assigned to read the book Nickel & Dimed: On (Not) Getting By In America by Barbara Ehrenreich. The book was written to look at the low-wage workforce and how the people who make up this society, live their lives. Ehrenreich does first hand investigations by working in some of these minimal wage jobs across the country. While conducting these investigations to help get the full understanding of these lifestyles, Ehrenreich had to accept the lowest costing place to live, as well as the highest paying job she could find. Ehrenreich also had self proclaimed limitations for herself, that she often broke throughout the text. I found it interesting that Ehrenreich limited herself by setting boundaries like never going hungry, not being homeless, no use of her personal credit card. Although these boundaries are logical and reasonable from an investigators side, I feel that these limitations she set for herself hindered the real experience of these jobs and lifestyles she is trying to g...

... middle of paper ...

...nd experience the lag week of no pay. Thus forced to continue the harsh ritual of work consistently to obtain their money or success. I believe that Ehrenreich has been socialized into the society of these welfare families. As stated by Ballantine pg. 91 “process of shedding one or more positions and taking on others”, this means that Ehrenreich now sees the real culture of these families. How tough it is just to be able to pay for a roof over their head and food on their table. Ehrenreich learns to see how these families must operate to survive, thus concluding her book with the call for attention to these problems. After reading this book, the so called american dream seems to be a myth. It seems that our society uses this ideology of hard work will be rewarded, and exploits those who are willing to put in the sweat and the effort that others will not.