Feature Articles: Financial Information & Tips
Book Review
Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America
by Barbara Ehrenreich
Reviewed by: Marsha Alexander, Environmental Design Specialist, University of Missouri Extension; Adjunct Assistant Professor, Environmental Design, University of Missouri Extension
Currently in the United States, millions of working
families do not have wages high enough to meet their
basic needs. Consequently these family units suffer
tremendous hardships. The Welfare Reform Bill of 1996
required poor families to move from a cash assistance
program to one that has a time limit for assistance and
requires employment. Researchers around the country have
begun to question the concept that work alone is the
answer to poverty. How much does a household unit need
to earn to make ends meet and what other support is
needed? In researching the basis for her most recent
book, Barbara Ehrenreich became a low wage earner to
learn first-hand the strategies to survive on minimum
wage. She vividly describes with persistence and humor
how difficult it is to survive on the wages of our
lowest paid wage earners. Her book examines the sobering
realities many American workers routinely face just
trying to earn a living.
Ehrenreich had the advantages of a graduate degree,
private health insurance and good health, a car, and
money for her first month's rent. Yet she had to work
two jobs to cover her meager existence. The author spent
about three months in 1999 and 2000 in Florida, Maine,
and Minnesota working as a cleaning woman, waitress,
nursing-home aide, and Wal-mart associate. Housing,
transportation, nutrition, health care, nutrition,
clothing, and psychological well-being were all issues
she faced routinely throughout her journey.
The author had only herself to manage. Consider just
how difficult her circumstances would have been with
children or an aged parent or a disabled family member
to support? These are the circumstances millions of our
working poor are facing daily. Thousands of people are
entering or re-entering the work force each month as low
wage earners due to welfare reform, divorce, previous
job loss, and more. How can we expect people who don't
have the conceptual knowledge or skills to make it when
someone with the advantages of this author could not? As
an extension educator, when reading this book, I found
myself saying these people need our resources! However,
minimum wage earners are just trying to make it to the
next paycheck and accessing our educational resources
are generally not on their radar screens. Often, as
Ehrenreich found, working two jobs was the only way to
support herself on minimum wage. That left little time
or energy for anything but sleeping and working.
This book is written in such a way that you can hardly put it down, as it is funny, provocative and so very telling about our current underside of capitalism. Hard work as an employee may not be the only solution to poverty. As Ehrenreich's experiences clearly exemplify, a support system that includes affordable housing, health care, childcare, and basic food needs is essential to providing working families the aid their employment does not.
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Last update: Wednesday, March 19, 2008
