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Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 305.569092
EAN: 9780805088380
ISBN: 0805088385
Label: Holt Paperbacks
Manufacturer: Holt Paperbacks
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 240
Publication Date: June 24, 2008
Publisher: Holt Paperbacks
Release Date: June 24, 2008
Sales Rank: 246
Studio: Holt Paperbacks
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Editorial Review:
Product Description:
The bestselling, landmark work of undercover reportage, now updated
Acclaimed as an instant classic upon publication, Nickel and Dimed has sold more than 1.5 million copies and become a staple of classroom reading. Chosen for “one book” initiatives across the country, it has fueled nationwide campaigns for a living wage. Funny, poignant, and passionate, this revelatory firsthand account of life in low-wage America—the story of Barbara Ehrenreich’s attempts to eke out a living while working as a waitress, hotel maid, house cleaner, nursing-home aide, and Wal-Mart associate—has become an essential part of the nation’s political discourse.
Now, in a new afterword, Ehrenreich shows that the plight of the underpaid has in no way eased: with fewer jobs available, deteriorating work conditions, and no pay increase in sight, Nickel and Dimed is more relevant than ever.
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - Completely Predictable
This was a book club selection and I thought is would be a good read.
Well, it was a fast read, however......
The lady had a template all prepared and wrote her story to fit it.
(Several of us wondered if most of it was even true.) The employers are mostly rich, heartless, greedy ogres and the people they hire are mostly honest, hard working people who are poor through no fault of their own.
Taking up for the thief was really over the top. (Is stealing OK if there is a "good" excuse? Who decides what a "good" excuse is?)
Her smug disdain for the literary collection of one of the clients of the maid service, says more about her than the jacket of her book.
The left in this country love to give away the money earned by others.
I wonder if Ehrenreich gave any of her proceeds to the poor people who populated her book. I would bet not.
Rating:  - Truly...interesting...
"On (Not) Getting By in America"; this sentence itself, incorporates the whole sense of the author's precious experience, and prospects to the potential reader a prompt sense of discomfort. Or at least, cues the awareness that somebody in this country is not indeed "living large".
Coincidentally, I think about it everyday, especially when I notice curious people driving in the next lane of the highway, during my tedious attempts to respect the 55-miles speed limit. "Curious" in this case is definitely a euphemism; I see individuals with obvious dental problems. Some have scarce or rotten teeth, and in some rare cases don't have teeth at all. I often catch myself in the rear view mirror shaking my head and naively wonder, how in the world can one neglect one of the main priorities, like personal hygiene or health care? In actuality, I always believed that you can have a fairly good idea of the social status of anyone anywhere in the world when they open their mouth, or by looking at them straight in the eyes. There you find clear indications of how they lived their childhood and youth, and which were the main concerns of the family in which they were reared. Consequently, as they approach adulthood, they keep carrying this scarlet letter as an undesired mark of infamous heritage. Moreover, a common denominator among the people I encounter is that they look precociously aged, probably by a distressed and sullen existence. At times they drive vehicles totally corroded and possessed ... Read More
Rating:  - A different slice of life
Many of us have worked at jobs that barely paid the bills, and paid us much less than we considered we were worth. An increasing number of people live lives dependent on such jobs. How does one make it in a country where the rents, food costs, transportation costs and health care costs routinely outpace the rise of minimum wages? Barbara Ehrenreich tried an experiment - she took on the task of finding such jobs, one in cleaning, one in restaurant serving, and one in retail, to see if she could make it even for a month on such wages.
Ehrenreich confesses to cheating - her transportation was always assured, she started with a comfortable sum, and really didn't have to worry about the longer-term issues of health care or saving for the unexpected. Still, the experiment was eye-opening. Despite the fact that the population served by places that cater to low-wage earners such as weekly residential hotels and food kitchens, it often costs more in time and money for people to take advantage of such things. The amount of time Ehrenreich spent trying to get free food amounted to a considerable sum, even if calculated at the minimum wage. Of course, this was also time that could not be spent in terms of education or job searching - how can one improve one's lot in life if basic survival needs take up so much time and energy?
I work with people and teach in schools where people, even if they aren't living on absolute minimum wages, still exist in a state where an auto breakdown can ... Read More
Rating:  - On (Not) Being a Good Book
There are no words that I could use to describe this woman's attitude that haven't already been sprinkled throughout Amazon reviews; whiny, preachy, arrogant, self-righteous, annoying...you get the point. She seems to be the worst kind of person: the kind that pretends to care about the plight of others in order to further her own career. I'd put her up there with Jesse and Reverend Al. Allow me to quote her actual words:
"I originally sought what I assumed would be a relatively easy job in hotel housekeeping and found myself steered into waitressing, no doubt because of my ethnicity and English skills."
"Unlike many low-wage workers, I have the further advantage of being white and a native English speaker."
"I ruled out places like New York and L.A., for example, where the working class consists mainly of people of color and a white woman with unaccented English seeking entry-level jobs might only look desperate or weird."
I'm sorry, is she white and privileged? I didn't happen to catch that part. Also, yeah, it would look desperate. That's what you get when you're actually poor. You know, desperate.
She laces the book with many footnotes and statistics, which are actually interesting, but she clearly has no idea what to do when she becomes the statistic. This is the prime example of what happens when you study all the charts, and you see them all laid on in black and white, then try to actually claim them as your own life and look foolish. ... Read More
Rating: - Telling the truth
This book tells the reality for too many Americans, who don't qualify for the Bush/McCain tax cuts. Sad, and scary, reading.
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