Post by bowmanblake on Aug 8, 2011 21:15:08 GMT -5
Barbara Ehrenreich's "Nickle and Dimed" is unique in the respect that rather than making assumption's and judgment based on data and the word of fellow "scientists". Ehrenreich delved right into the havoc stricken world of poverty. And as Ehrenreich discovered, the "data" and "facts" that we know about poverty are just a tad bit far from the truth. For instance, near the end of her book, Ehrenreich states "Something is wrong,very wrong."Essentially, Ehrenreich is trying to inform Americans that minimum wage isn't minimum wage, infact it is far below what minimum wage should be. Ehrenreich, being of decent health along with a good head on her shoulders can barely support herself. If it wasn't for her emergency money she kept stored, Ehrenreich would have been homeless in a matter of weeks at either locations that she visited. I agree wholeheartedly with Ehrenreich's study, light needed to be shed upon what was and is still going on in America today, in regards to poverty. The question I have is, What are we going to do about the poverty in America? and How? Honestly this book has made me rethink where my family and I are in the economy right now. It makes me thankful that I had two hard working parents that made above minimum wage. My parents always told me I took everything we had for granted. Now I see why, right now my mom is working part-time at walmart as a secretary for the opticians. And its been different compared to the time when she had a full time job at panasonic making well above minimum wage, because now we only have one source of sustainable income and thats my dad. I even took up a job during the summer to help my mom out if/when she needed it. I was doing back breaking work and making $8.25 and hour. Which wasn't really that bad, but at the end of the day I asked myself if I could do that kind of work full time and I quickly came to the conclusion that there is probably no amount of money that they could pay me to do that kind of work 5 days a week from 8-4. Sure, thats a stretch from the jobs that Ehrenreich was doing however its essentially the same. I did the hard work not because I wanted to but because I had to and there really wasn't anything else to do.