Nickeled and Dimed, derived when Barbara Ehrenreich, the author, proposed that someone needed to explore the consequences of people living the everyday life in welfare reform. Ehrenreich was very fortunate and privileged by sitting at a desk and writing for a living hence she has no knowledge of how to live in poverty. Ehrenreich often questioned how uneducated and unskilled workers could survive on such low incomes. Ehrenreich sets out restrictions that she could and could not use during her experience. The restrictions were the following; she could not fall back on any skills derived from her education or usual work, she had to take the highest paying job she was offered and do her best to keep it, she had to take the cheapest lodging she could find, with a reasonable consideration for safety and privacy.…show more content… More-over, low wage people would not have the advantage of these opportunities. Ehrenreich understood she would always have a car, would never allow herself to become homeless, and she would never go hungry. She realizes since this is an experience, she will never truly understand the complications of poverty, nonetheless she is willingly trying to learn if she can match her low wage income to her expenses. At some time throughout the experiment she broke every rule. The upbringing, she gave while filling out applications and during interviews was she had three years of college and was a divorced homemaker reentering the workforce after many years. Ehrenreich closes the introduction by providing key features that set her apart from the typical low wage single mother since she is white, a native English speaker, has good health and a
