Nickel and Dimed

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Seeing Eye to Eye with Barbara Ehrenreich's article "Nickel and Dimed." In her article, "Nickel and Dimed," Barbara Ehrenreich says that "many people earn far less than they need to live on" ( 270.) A good percent of high school graduates move right on to college. They graduate college and then they usually move on to make a good amount of money to live a satisfying life. However, college is not made for everyone, and what would our world be with only professionals? I agree with Ehrenreich that the minimum wage is too low because, while people with open opportunities earn a better future for their families, many like my own, are fighting to get through on a daily basis due to our economy. Ehrenreich mentions in her article "the Economic Policy Institute recently reviewed dozens of studies of what constitutes a "living wage" and came up with an average figure of $30,000 a year for a family of one adult and two children, which amounts to a wage of $14 an hour" (270.) If this is a living wage then how are people living today. The average minimum wage is much less than $14 and hour today. I agree with Ehrenreich in what she mentions here because my mother never went to college. She depended on my father to live because he was making pretty good money at the time they got married. After being married fifteen years my parents got divorced. My mom was left with two children to take care of all on her own. Being a 2 single mother was tough for her. She struggled day to day just to have dinner on the table for us every night. After many years of struggling my mom finally acquired a good, well paying job. My mom was now making about $11 an hour. This is still less than what the Economic Policy Institut... ... middle of paper ... ... This may be true for a lot of people but does anyone realize "that you could work hard--harder even than you ever thought possible-and still find yourself sinking deeper into poverty and debt" (272.) This is true for so many people. Many people or even families work their behinds off and still hardly have enough to make ends meet. Like Ehrenreich says "someday [...] [people] 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" (273.) I think this is so true. Minimum wage is way less than what a family can live on. If a person is working, pay them the amount of money required for them to have a good quality life and for one to provide for their family. Instead of paying for the people that don't bother getting jobs, pay more to the people that are doing the work.

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