Barbara Ehrenreich Nickel And Dimed Analysis

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Barbara Ehrenreich’s “Nickel and Dimed: On Not Getting By in America” is an exposé on working as an unskilled laborer in America. In the excerpt we read Ehrenreich leaves her home to go undercover in Key West, Florida with $1,300, no job, and no place to live. She puts down her deposit at an “$500-a-month efficiency” 30 miles from town and gets a full-time job as a waitress. Unable to live on just one minimum wage job, Ehrenreich gets a job at another restaurant. When this proves to be too much, she quits the first job to work full-time at the latter restaurant. She also has to find a new place to live because her commute costs per day are more than an hours wage. Eventually, she obtains another job at the hotel adjacent to the restaurant and
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