How Do People Do it?

[megancoleman]

Barbara Ehrenreich's novel Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America, was an eye opener for many reasons. One, why students need a good education and need to go to college; two, the people Ehrenreich worked with were seemingly happy people who did not complain about work, how were they so happy? And thirdly, how America is running up the prices on every aspect of life, why is food or transportation so expensive these days when most people can't afford it.

"I don't mind… I mean, it's nothing to me. But what I would like is to be able to take a day off now and then…if I had to… and still be able to buy groceries the next day."
-Colleen
I believe everyone needs a day off every now and then, to gain back their energy and just relax. When you work almost everyday of the year just to make ends meet which don't usually touch, it's hard to take that needed day off. The low wage workers work all the time and don't even get nice housing or nice anything when they try hard, Ehrenreich's novel was eye opening to why people do need to go to college and get a good education so we can support ourselves in the pricey world. There is so much people have to do when supporting for them or others, it's hard to make sure everyone gets what they need when you earn minimum wage at a job you work your guts out at and don't have enough energy to get another job to support yourself.

How do some of these people who work these low wage jobs stay happy? We saw Barbara Ehrenreich struggling to keep an upbeat attitude, the work was too stressful for her and she became and unhappy person to be around. Ehrenreich's coworkers constantly deal with the lifestyle Barbara is just pretending to live, and she was being unreasonable acting in a such a manner as she was towards the end of the novel while her coworkers were in the same situation as her or in some cases worse. Her actions were not my favorite part to read about and as a reader I was disappointed how she acted. Although the situations she was put through were tough, she survived through and her attitude only really went sour at the end of her journey.

Living in America on a low wage--usually minimum wage--job is hard, there is no way around that and we saw the pain Ehrenreich went through to survive just by herself. She was not supporting a family or anyone else, just her and it was hard for her to survive and find food and a sanitary place to sleep at night. Transportation was also a hardship, to get from place to place was a challenge which sometimes Ehrenreich didn't want to accept. How can Americans push the price up so much to where even fellow American's can barely survive?

Going into my senior year this was a very intriguing book to read, it made me think about my life going into the future and how I'm going to spend it and make it so I can make ends meet and not be put through the toucher of worrying and knowing that everything will be alright in the end. But the people Ehrenreich worked with are really the ones who taught me the lesson, to make the best out of the situation, no matter what it is.

[karlhempel]

Megan, to begin with, I found your title very interesting; how do people do it? They know the consequences of their actions and the results which will come forth of what they do, but they still do them. The low-wage workers in America know they aren’t earning adequate funds but they just accept their fate and get slapped in the face by the higher class. Money is probably one of the most dominating factors we must live our lives by, yet maybe we don’t have to. Maybe if we could take a more transcendentalist approach to life, we could become at peace in society and not depend so much on money. Materialistic goods have become way too important in today’s society and something needs to be done about it. We as a society must realize that materialistic goods should not be valued the same as relationships in our life are. Maybe if we could take a step back from all these wants we have, maybe we could build stronger relationships which ultimately make our society all the stronger. Supporting yourself on a low wage job in today’s society sucks; that’s just about all there is to it. We need affordable housing and the ability for the lower class to find adequate works but how can we when our society is so greedy and has materialistic items valued so highly?

[amandarussell]

I agree that Nickel and Dimed was eye opening. The book did a great job of describing the lifestyle of a person living in poverty. But I also agree that Ehrenreich's behavior was a little disappointing. She complained and and became a sour person, when perhaps millions live the way she just attempted to live. Did she do a decent enough job? Given the circumstances, yes. But she should have definitely expanded her exploration a little. She should have gone without a back up credit card or a break. The worry is three-fourths of the stress that law-wage workers deal with on a daily basis. Will my bills get paid? Can I eat this weekend? It's sad that this is happening, and I definitely believe that the minimum wage should be a little higher, especially considering what Megan stated about even transportation being too expensive. It's scary to think about having to live in poverty, since conditions are so rough.

[drewlane]

I completely agree, Megan. The book showed me, personally, just how amazing the people Ehrenreich worked with really are. They never seemend to whine, wince, or back down from any challenge at work and always faced it with a smile (even if it wasn't a TRUE smile). I found it amazing how they could work, and work, and work, and work, and only scrape by. I found it amazing in the book when Ehrenreich wanted to buy one of the girls that worked with her at The Maids lunch, but between everyone in the car, they could'nt even pull together two dollars. My jaw literally dropped on that one. How can people work so hard, and not even really make a profit? That is a question we just simply won't know the answer to. All I know is that Ehrenreich's book put us just a little bit closer to the answer, and it certainly can make someone think about how anyone could survive like that. It's nearly impossible. Even in the cities that Ehrenreich succeeded in, she only scraped by, in Maine it was under $75. That's got to be scary, and not to mention the cushion that Ehrenreich had to begin with. So the answer to the question, "how do they do it?" can only have one plausible answer: witchcraft.