Post by jacobwinkler on Aug 9, 2011 23:29:44 GMT -5
Barbara Ehrenreich's "Nickel and Dimed, On (Not) Getting by in America" is a very interesting and unique read. Reading this book felt very similar to watching Johnny Depp's and Al Pacino's "Donnie Brasco", a crime film where an FBI agent goes undercover and infiltrates one of the major mob families. In many ways Nickel and Dimed, and Donnie Brasco are very similar. For instance Barbara Ehrenreich begins to grow very attached to many of the people she meets and works with in her endeavors. The same happens to Donnie Brasco, the FBI agent who inadvertently becomes very good friends with one of the mobsters he has to associate with. While each of these stories are very different in their own ways, at the same time the similarities between the two are shocking. Nickel and Dimed creates the same feeling of awe that Donnie Brasco does, a blockbuster movie based very loosely around real life occurrences. The point I'm making is that, while reading Nickel and Dimed, I often forgot I was reading real life accounts on the events within the book. It's not often that I find books based on true stories which are that intriguing.
Unfortunately however, if it weren't for the undercover spy feeling the book gave off, much of the intrigue the story offers would disappear. Ehrenreich steps into the role of lower class underprivileged worker as if there was some big mystery as to what it would offer her. I feel like much of the book and the core of the encounters within are something society is already aware of. All it takes is working a single minimum wage job in your life to understand that living off a $7.25 pay rate with reasonable hours and without any kind of aid is next to impossible. And if you feel as if you were suddenly enlightened on the lower class by this book, being published years before the economic crisis we find ourselves in now, then you must have never read a shred of news in these past few years. Things haven't gotten any better, and the lower class is only growing.
While the core issues the book raises should be fairly well known, many of the more subtle and treacherous social issues of the lower class are brought to light through first hand experience. Although I feel like Ehrenreich skims over these issues quicker than she should have to focus more on financial concerns. Personally, the cycle that is started once you enter the lower class, and the difficulty of breaking out of said cycle, is much more significant than the well known $7.25 per hour pay rate these jobs offer. Many of the individuals working these low class jobs succumb to bad habits such as excessive use of alcohol and drugs. Furthermore, once you get started with habits such as these, the only jobs you will ever be able to find are ones in the lower class. Not to mention, if you really become desperate, and decide to commit a felony, your chances of escape boil down close to zero. This cycle is the real plight of the lower class.
Unfortunately however, if it weren't for the undercover spy feeling the book gave off, much of the intrigue the story offers would disappear. Ehrenreich steps into the role of lower class underprivileged worker as if there was some big mystery as to what it would offer her. I feel like much of the book and the core of the encounters within are something society is already aware of. All it takes is working a single minimum wage job in your life to understand that living off a $7.25 pay rate with reasonable hours and without any kind of aid is next to impossible. And if you feel as if you were suddenly enlightened on the lower class by this book, being published years before the economic crisis we find ourselves in now, then you must have never read a shred of news in these past few years. Things haven't gotten any better, and the lower class is only growing.
While the core issues the book raises should be fairly well known, many of the more subtle and treacherous social issues of the lower class are brought to light through first hand experience. Although I feel like Ehrenreich skims over these issues quicker than she should have to focus more on financial concerns. Personally, the cycle that is started once you enter the lower class, and the difficulty of breaking out of said cycle, is much more significant than the well known $7.25 per hour pay rate these jobs offer. Many of the individuals working these low class jobs succumb to bad habits such as excessive use of alcohol and drugs. Furthermore, once you get started with habits such as these, the only jobs you will ever be able to find are ones in the lower class. Not to mention, if you really become desperate, and decide to commit a felony, your chances of escape boil down close to zero. This cycle is the real plight of the lower class.