"Nickel and Dimed" and Poverty

Paper Summary:

This paper explains that, although the idea that success comes to all laborers who work hard is one of the most cherished aspects of American capitalist ideology, it is a myth. The author reports that, to confirm her suspected hypothesis in "Nickel and Dimed' that it was not possible to live on the minimum wage in America, reporter and professor Barbara Ehrenreich took different minimum wage jobs, in three different locations in America; in all of her jobs, she was forced to supplant her income with a second job, and even then, she was unable to get by in material terms. The paper relates that, as a solution, Ehrenreich suggests a living minimum wage and appropriate benefits even part-time workers.

From the Paper:

"Many of the individuals the author met were intelligent and articulate, but life, through poor opportunities or unexpected hardship had cast them into the ranks of the minimum wage laborers, ranks that are difficult to extricate one's self from. As David Shipler has noted in his book on "The Working Poor: Invisible in America", the less income one has, the more one must plan, and even a minor unexpected expense like a child's illness for a mother with no health insurance, can cause one to 'fall'. In contrast, if hard work automatically meant success for the individual who worked hard, then the easy-living women who spend their money on copper pots and do not work would not be materially comfortable-but they are. The attack on Ehrenreich's part on capitalism, as she eviscerates the conspicuous consumption of the aspiring middle classes' new faux old homes in Maine, or the Minnesota lower middle classes orgy of buying, in the hopes of finding happiness and beauty but merely creating disorder for employees is penetrating."

More papers on "Nickel and Dimed" and Poverty:

• Book Review # 114675 : "Nickel and Dimed"
• Book Review # 149426 : "Ehrenreich's "Nickel and Dimed"
• Book Review # 98251 : "Nickel and Dimed"

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