Anyone read the book "Nickel and Dimed" and what did u think about it?

Answer 1

I think Amanda R pretty much missed the point. It wasn't really a book about Barbara Ehrenreich, the author--although obviously it's based on her experiences in trying to see how it feels to live on minimum-wage jobs. It's really a book about the people she encounters on the way--people who don't have any agenda, or political point of view, people who are simply trying to live. They're either trying to get by in jobs that pay lousy wages with no benefits (like health care), or they're the people who are the middle managers, and the only way to keep their own slightly better jobs is to make sure that those under them don't improve their condition. The point isn't that Ehrenreich can leave any time she wants, or that she feels compelled to make things easier for herself. The point is that she's reporting on the real lives of people she comes into contact with, who CAN'T leave any time they want. It pretty much gives the lie to the idea that, gee, if things are going well for the people at the top, then everything will trickle down and things will go great for the people at the bottom. Anyone who's middle class or lower knows from their own experience (without any "Marxist"--are there really any of those left?--to tell them) that things AREN'T getting better--that it's a struggle just to stay where you are, let alone improve your life, let alone create a future for your children, especially if you're undereducated or live in certain parts of the country. And none of the people she writes about are lazy--they work their butts off, and they're good people. But they're being nickeled and dimed to death, and turned against each other, so that those on top of the food chain can live comfortably and profit. You may like or dislike Ehrenreich, but at the end of the day--when she's gone home--the people she writes about are still there. And what's happening to them in the greatest and richest country on earth is simply wrong.

Answer 2

The books that I study have a brilliant style of pages yet they have been all written by using information that has been discovered to assist what they write, scientists have been getting to understand with regard to the universe and existence for an extremely lengthy time now and that they consistently submit while they have the information to assist what they declare to be information or perhaps it extremely is barely after the claims have been general many instances over via different scientists, any non secular e book such by using fact the bible, the Quran and the Torah, in basic terms ever retell thoughts from over 2 thousand years in the past, those thoughts have been handed down via the spoken be conscious for 4 hundred years until now they have been actual written down. So, what do I study? technological understanding shown fact, or non secular fictional thoughts? no assessment, fact wins it each time.

Answer 3

I read it a few years ago in college. I thought it was the most biased book based on "professional research" that I have ever read. This woman, who can only desmonstrate Marxist views, decides to ignore her PhD and get minimum wage jobs, trying to make ends meet being a single, child-less woman. As hard as she tries, and even though she doesn't divulge her degree, she cannot stop her knowledge, though she never admits that it plays a factor in her finding and maintaining an adequate job.

She also goes to a donor for thousand dollar assistance throughout her time "slumming". I don't know of any poor people who can find donors that nice.

Answer 4

I read the book last year and found it to be a very interesting read. After reading the book, I hope I never have to work at Wal-mart, or clean other people's houses. I felt exhausted after reading the book, the author is so descriptive of the drudgery of slave wage jobs.

Answer 5

I haven't read it myself but I have heard that is an absolutely phenomenal book. It has really changed the worldview of some of my friends who have read it.

Answer 6

had to read it freshman year of college. author makes some good points, but the book is mostly of her making them over and over, instead of researching and elaborating on them to make a more interesting read.