Barbara Ehrenreich's Nickel And Dimed

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Pages: 5

Ehrenreich, Barbara. Nickel and Dimed: on (Not) Getting by in America. New York, Metropolitan Books, 2001.
Ehrenreich’s tale of a low wage life offers insight into the world of poverty; One of which often goes unnoticed. She addresses the brutal reality of a full time job accompanied with no health care, no benefits, and enough pay to barely make it through the night. To find out for herself if it was actually possible to have a substantial life on minimum wage, Ehrenreich leaves her well-off world behind in exchange for one too many people are forced to face. At the end of her experiment, it was obvious that while it is possible to survive on poverty level wages, it was not a life worth living.
Barbara Ehrenreich was a novelist and political activist who was willing put herself in the field in order to discover the honest life of a lower class citizen. Throughout her endeavors waitressing, housekeeping, and becoming in her words, a “Wal-Martian,” Ehrenreich faces the ugly truth of attempting, and barely succeeding, to make a significant living first hand. Her genuine experience completely altered her perspective of the less fortunate and those who struggle to make the best out of a bad situation.

Ehrenreich, Barbara. “NICKEL AND DIMED by Barbara
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