Post by kaitlinsnapp on Aug 3, 2011 12:46:48 GMT -5
Nickel and Dimed--Lessons Learned
I had never considered the idea that many people who utilize government aide are actually hard workers. I think the common misconception in our country is that those families who need food stamps and help from organizations like United Way or The Salvation Army are no good and could help the situation they got themselves in if only they’d put in more effort. Reading this book completely disproves that fallacy. Therefore, Barabara Ehrenreich’s book, Nickel and Dimed, achieved its goal in opening this country’s eyes to the problems within our country’s Welfare system.
Before recognizing Ehrenreich’s achievement we must first understand why these misconceptions existed in the first place. I believe most people see welfare families as lazy and low-class because we, as Americans see to stereotype whole groups of people based upon the worst-case scenarios we’ve dealt with. In some cases, welfare families are lazy and do like to cheat the system to get more product through less work. We can see this while volunteering at some of the smaller and more local organizations even. For example, last year I worked at Harvesting Hope, Danville’s local food pantry, and we sometimes served people who cheated the system. We would have one household divide their family as if they lived in separate houses so that they could get food twice a month rather than once (the allotted amount). They would fill out the paperwork identically but with different addresses. These are the cases that lead people into maintaining a negative image toward all welfare families. It is not fair, but that is often what happens.
On the other hand, we see Barbara Ehrenreich’s side of the welfare world. A world where people are in and out of the system even after working two jobs a day and trying with all they can to be self-sufficient. One of the greatest problems Ehrenreich faced throughout this experiment was finding housing that was affordable and within a short distance of her work. In her book she states, “You don't need a degree in economics to see that wages are too low and rents too high. The problem of rents is easy for a noneconomist, even a sparsely educated low-wage worker, to grasp: it's the market, stupid. When the rich and the poor compete for housing on the open market, the poor don't stand a chance." Throughout her adventure Barbara met women who labored through painful injuries just to be able to eat that night. She met one women who slept in a car in order to save money. Barbara herself struggled throughout this experiment even though she had countless advantages such as the car and the promise of relocation if circumstances became that bad.
Hence, Ehrenreich’s novel was a huge accomplishment within modern “yellow journalism”. It was personal, intriguing, and most of all informative. Personally, this book taught me to avoid believing stereotypes based upon one of two of the worst case scenarios.
I had never considered the idea that many people who utilize government aide are actually hard workers. I think the common misconception in our country is that those families who need food stamps and help from organizations like United Way or The Salvation Army are no good and could help the situation they got themselves in if only they’d put in more effort. Reading this book completely disproves that fallacy. Therefore, Barabara Ehrenreich’s book, Nickel and Dimed, achieved its goal in opening this country’s eyes to the problems within our country’s Welfare system.
Before recognizing Ehrenreich’s achievement we must first understand why these misconceptions existed in the first place. I believe most people see welfare families as lazy and low-class because we, as Americans see to stereotype whole groups of people based upon the worst-case scenarios we’ve dealt with. In some cases, welfare families are lazy and do like to cheat the system to get more product through less work. We can see this while volunteering at some of the smaller and more local organizations even. For example, last year I worked at Harvesting Hope, Danville’s local food pantry, and we sometimes served people who cheated the system. We would have one household divide their family as if they lived in separate houses so that they could get food twice a month rather than once (the allotted amount). They would fill out the paperwork identically but with different addresses. These are the cases that lead people into maintaining a negative image toward all welfare families. It is not fair, but that is often what happens.
On the other hand, we see Barbara Ehrenreich’s side of the welfare world. A world where people are in and out of the system even after working two jobs a day and trying with all they can to be self-sufficient. One of the greatest problems Ehrenreich faced throughout this experiment was finding housing that was affordable and within a short distance of her work. In her book she states, “You don't need a degree in economics to see that wages are too low and rents too high. The problem of rents is easy for a noneconomist, even a sparsely educated low-wage worker, to grasp: it's the market, stupid. When the rich and the poor compete for housing on the open market, the poor don't stand a chance." Throughout her adventure Barbara met women who labored through painful injuries just to be able to eat that night. She met one women who slept in a car in order to save money. Barbara herself struggled throughout this experiment even though she had countless advantages such as the car and the promise of relocation if circumstances became that bad.
Hence, Ehrenreich’s novel was a huge accomplishment within modern “yellow journalism”. It was personal, intriguing, and most of all informative. Personally, this book taught me to avoid believing stereotypes based upon one of two of the worst case scenarios.