Nickel and dimed evaluation summary. Nickel And Dimed Summary 2022-10-23
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Nickel and Dimed is a book by Barbara Ehrenreich that discusses the struggles of low-wage workers in America. In the book, Ehrenreich embarks on an experiment to see if it is possible to survive on the wages earned by these workers. She takes on various low-wage jobs in different parts of the country and documents her experiences and observations.
One of the main takeaways from Nickel and Dimed is the sheer difficulty of trying to survive on low wages. Ehrenreich finds that even with multiple jobs, it is nearly impossible to make ends meet. She frequently goes without enough food, decent housing, and healthcare, and is constantly stressed about how to pay for basic necessities.
Another key finding from the book is the poor working conditions that many low-wage workers face. Ehrenreich experiences long hours, grueling physical labor, and disrespectful treatment from her supervisors. She also encounters a lack of job security, with workers often being fired or having their hours cut without warning.
One of the most striking aspects of Nickel and Dimed is the way in which the low-wage workers Ehrenreich meets are able to maintain their dignity and humanity despite the difficult circumstances they face. Despite the constant struggles to make ends meet and the often degrading conditions they work in, they remain resilient and optimistic, and are able to form strong bonds of solidarity with their co-workers.
Overall, Nickel and Dimed is a powerful and eye-opening book that shines a light on the realities of low-wage work in America. It serves as a wake-up call for those who may not be aware of the struggles that so many people face on a daily basis, and it offers a call to action for those who want to do something to help improve the lives of low-wage workers.
Nickel and Dimed: Study Guide
From the sky Minnesota looks lush and picturesque. Ehrenreich refuses these conditions and opts for Wal-Mart, something she will rationalize in the coming weeks. Ehrenreich traveled to Minnesota in search of achieving a comfortable medium between her income and her expenses. Ehrenreich, who was in her late 50s in 1998, acknowledges that she starts with several other advantages. One day, when Holly seems ill, she confesses to Ehrenreich that she may be pregnant. Ehrenreich cites many coworkers who rely on friends and family to provide childcare and transportation so they can go to work every day. These unsustainable systems force low-wage workers into financial holes they can never escape.
After contacting several charitable agencies, Ehrenreich receives soap, deodorant, and a collection of food with high sugar content. She would take the highest-paid job available and live in the cheapest accommodations available that provided safety and privacy. Two days later, she gets two job offers: a weekend assignment as dietary aide at the Woodcrest Residential Facility nursing home and a weekday job at The Maids. An innate desire to please management helps keep low-wage workers compliant; further, common infringement on civil liberties such as drug testing and searches of private property help to psychologically intimidate workers. Within the book lies not only the journey of Adam Shepard, an ordinary man attempting to advance from being homeless to living financially stable, but also the stories of others, whom Shepard met along the way, taking different routes to reach similar goals. That night is a sleepless one.
Nickel and Dimed Chapter 3: Selling in Minnesota Summary & Analysis
Organizations have arisen to combat these policies and counter the opening of new stores, and in 2007 the company finally broadened its health benefits while also seeking to transform its workplace from 20 to 40 percent part-time. It seems this was the wrong approach—it pays to be a full-blown suck-up. The book chronicles Ehrenreich's experiences as she attempts to survive on low-wage jobs in the United States. However, her final verdict is not one I am not entirely against, nor do I find it practical. Cathey consistent bombardments of challenges and how he handle each situation. Ehrenreich's boss at The Maids, Ted, had complained to her that he could double his business if he had more reliable workers.
On the day Ehrenreich believes she can move into the Hopkins Park Plaza, she is told she cannot move in until the following week. She tries to find other living arrangements but learns that the Twin Cities are in an affordable-housing crisis. Ehrenreich threatens a work stoppage and talks to her employer Ted about getting help for Holly, but neither Ted nor Holly will allow this. It also frustrates her that her ability to perform a job well and her engaging qualities can be trumped by smoking pot. As a server, Ehrenreich is too busy working to enjoy these types of communications. Ehrenreich relays the money she made and spent in each job to prove that for low-wage earners, there generally aren't funds left over to pay for the medical help that low-wage earners require for the ailments caused by their jobs.
Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America “Evaluation” Summary and Analysis
This leaves her the time to wonder why people do such work in the first place. In the introduction, Ehrenreich details the rules she set for herself at the outset of her project in order to lend more credibility to the results and dispel the perception of weak spots in her experiment. Along the journey through her working career Polachek displays the struggle women in the workforce faced in not only finding employment that could feed their family but jobs that provide fair and humane treatment. She gives up her middle class life to become and live as a working poor. For example, Ehrenreich experiences stomachaches, a classic sign of mental distress. On her last day at The Maids, she reveals to co-workers her real reason for working there.
Nickel and Dimed Introduction: Getting Ready Summary & Analysis
Ehrenreich also decides to move to a trailer park closer to Key West in order to save time and gas, making a new second job possible. On Friday, one of her team's assignments includes the home of Mrs. On job applications, she writes that she attended three years of college, despite having a Ph. She also learns more about the difficulties faced by her fellow employees, especially in housing—there are no secret economies for the poor, she realizes, and instead everyone is scrounging by in a near-emergency state, with some even sleeping in vans. Lapham agrees and says the person should be Ehrenreich herself. She particularly accentuates on how humiliated and how ashamed people are of being poor. Her book also sought to counter the idea that economic growth and full employment would do away with desperate poverty, since both were in evidence at the time she was writing.
Nickel and Dimed Afterword: Nickel and Dimed Summary & Analysis
In March of 2011, our family took off to Ohio with the Greyhound. She learns that Minneapolis has a vacancy rate of less than 1 percent. Most of her potential employers just want to know that she is a legal citizen and has not committed any felonies. Comparing her prose to such predecessors is not out of place. She finds the day-long process intimidating: the history and unmatched growth of Wal-Mart is conveyed along with the service-oriented philosophy, anti-union policy, and the importance of preventing time-theft, or doing anything non-work related during a shift.
Nickel and Dimed: On (NOT) Getting By in America Evaluation Summary
Ehrenreich notes that Democrats did not want to discuss welfare because they did not want to find flaws in the economic bliss they took credit for creating. Unfortunately, her hopes for a steady month of working as a waitress are disrupted by two things. Ultimately, Ehrenreich finds that it is nearly impossible to make ends meet on minimum wage and calls for an increase in wages for low-income workers. She had the added privilege of being white and a native English speaker, meaning that she was offered certain kinds of jobs over others—waitressing rather than hotel housekeeping, for instance. Barbara quickly befriends Joan, the feminist hostess, and Gail, her coworker. She is finally approved to stay in Commentary On Esperanza's Rising 1278 Words 6 Pages She learns that she has to work hard to achieve what she wants to. Although Caroline and her husband make enough money to be considered middle class, the only neighborhood where they can afford to live is infested with drug dealers.
Nickel and Dimed opens with Barbara Ehrenreich, a writer and journalist from Key West, Florida, at a lunch with her editor discussing pitches and article ideas. See eNotes Ad-Free Start your 48-hour free trial to get access to more than 30,000 additional guides and more than 350,000 Homework Help questions answered by our experts. Ehrenreich chronicles her own mental-health struggles as she works undercover to show how the stress of low-paying jobs and unfair systems often causes health problems. Ehrenreich does not speak up in his defense—a change in her personality that troubles her deeply. This leaves the poor to essentially fend for themselves—while other civilized countries provide social safety nets in the forms of housing, child care, public transportation, and health care. However, if one reads the newspapers, even in a time of high employment, there is evidence of poverty in articles that discuss shortages in food banks despite a high-level of donations , or overcrowded shelters. She is assigned to train with a woman named Carlie.
