 Cover of the 2001 Metropolitan Books edition Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America is a book authored by Barbara Ehrenreich. Written from the perspective of the undercover journalist, it sets out to investigate the impact of the 1996 welfare reform on the "working poor" in the United States. In some ways it is similar to George Orwell's much earlier Down and Out in Paris and London as well as German investigative reporter Günter Wallraff's Ganz Unten (The Lowest of the Low). Image File history File links Nickeldimecov. ...
Barbara Ehrenreich (born August 26, 1941, in Butte, Montana) is a prominent liberal American writer, columnist, feminist, socialist and political activist. ...
Undercover journalism is a form of journalism in which a reporter tries to infiltrate in a community by posing as somebody friendly to that community. ...
The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 (PRWORA, Pub. ...
Working poor is a term used to describe individuals and families who maintain regular employment but remain in relative poverty due to low levels of pay and dependent expenses. ...
Eric Arthur Blair (25 June 1903 [1] [2] – 21 January 1950), better known by the pen name George Orwell, was an English author and journalist. ...
Down and Out in Paris and London is George Orwells semi-autobiographical account of living in poverty in both cities. ...
Günter Wallraff (born October 1, 1942 in Burscheid near Cologne) is a German writer and undercover journalist. ...
The events related in the book took place between spring 1998 and summer 2000. The book was first published in 2001 by Metropolitan Books. An earlier version appeared as an article in the January 1999 issue of Harper's magazine. Ehrenreich later wrote a companion book, Bait and Switch (published September 2005), which discusses her attempt to find a white-collar job. “Harpers†redirects here. ...
White-collar workers perform tasks which are less laborious yet often more highly paid than blue-collar workers, who do manual work. ...
A stage adaptation by Joan Holden opened in 2002.
Storyline
During a conversation with Lewis Lapham, editor of Harper's, Ehrenreich proposes a journalistic approach to the effects of welfare reform, an infiltration of the "unskilled" work market; unbeknownst to her, she would be the one investigating. Securing funds all for unexpected expenses, approximately $1300, she leaves her home and her middle-class existence, with a few personal items and her car, for a few months of low wage work. Image File history File links Metadata Size of this preview: 772 × 600 pixelsFull resolution (1949 × 1514 pixel, file size: 2. ...
Image File history File links Metadata Size of this preview: 772 × 600 pixelsFull resolution (1949 × 1514 pixel, file size: 2. ...
Barbara Ehrenreich (born August 26, 1941, in Butte, Montana) is a prominent liberal American writer, columnist, feminist, socialist and political activist. ...
Lewis Lapham (pronounced ) (born January 8, 1935) was the editor of the American monthly Harpers Magazine until 2006. ...
“Harpers†redirects here. ...
Journalism is a discipline of gathering, writing and reporting news, and broadly it includes the process of editing and presenting the news articles. ...
Starting off in her backyard, Ehrenreich searches for lodging and a job in neighboring Key West, Florida. Securing jobs at two restaurants, "Jerry's" and "Hearthside", fictitiously named, in consonance with other locations and people throughout the book, and a one-day housekeeping stint, she works for one month before succumbing to an extremely busy night at Jerry's; after walking out mid-shift, Ehrenreich heads to Portland, Maine, without an automobile, for a fresh start. Nickname: Coordinates: , Country United States State Florida County Monroe Government - Type Council-Manager - Mayor Morgan McPherson Area - City 7. ...
Nickname: Motto: Resurgam (Latin for I will rise again) Coordinates: , Country State County Cumberland Settled 1632 Incorporated 1786 Government - Mayor Nicholas M. Mavodones, Jr Area - City 52. ...
Beginning anew, Ehrenreich lands two more jobs after a four day search, one as an assistant at a nursing home and another as a maid at a cleaning franchise. Worn down by her work-load and work-related stress, she travels to her final destination, Minneapolis, Minnesota, where she is employed in the women's department at a Wal-Mart before ultimately ending her investigation. Even with the odds stacked on her side -- a car, no dependents (other than herself), and initial funds -- Ehrenreich fails to achieve a sustainable lifestyle. Stress (roughly the opposite of relaxation) is a medical term for a wide range of strong external stimuli, both physiological and psychological, which can cause a physiological response called the general adaptation syndrome, first described in 1936 by Hans Selye in the journal Nature. ...
Minneapolis redirects here. ...
Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. ...
Social issues Written as an exposé, Ehrenreich attempts to combat the "too lazy to work" and "a job will defeat poverty" ideals held by traditionalists. Suggesting problems with the argument, Ehrenreich highlights many of the difficulties people have working jobs that pay low wages.
Foremost, she attacks the notion that low-wage jobs require "unskilled" labor. The author, a Ph.D. educated journalist, found manual labor taxing, uninteresting and degrading. She described how the work required incredible feats of stamina, focus, memory, quick thinking, and fast learning. Constant and repeated movement creates a risk of repetitive stress injury, pain must often be worked through to hold a job in a market with constant turnover; and the days are filled with degrading and uninteresting tasks (e.g. toilet-cleaning and shirt-reordering). Repetitive strain injury, also called repetitive stress injury or typing injury, is an occupational overuse syndrome affecting the tendons and nerves. ...
She argues "personality" tests, questionnaires designed to weed out "incompatible" potential employees, and urine drug tests, increasingly common in the low wage market, deter potential applicants and violate liberties while managerial apathy and austereness contribute to class separation and promote an unhealthy, stressful work environment. This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ...
She reports that "help needed" signs don't necessarily indicate an opening; more often their purpose is to sustain a pool of applicants to safeguard against rapid turnover of employees. She also argues one low wage job is often not enough to support one person (let alone a family); with inflating housing prices and stagnant wages, this practice increasingly becomes difficult to maintain. Many of the workers encountered in the book survive by living with relatives or other persons in the same position, or in their cars in parking lots.
She concludes by refuting the claim that low-wage workers, recipients of government or charitable services like welfare, food, and healthcare, are simply living off the generosity of others. Instead, she suggests, "we" live off their generosity:
- When someone works for less pay than she can live on ... she has made a great sacrifice for you ... The "working poor" ... are in fact the major philanthropists of our society. They neglect their own children so that the children of others will be cared for; they live in substandard housing so that other homes will be shiny and perfect; they endure privation so that inflation will be low and stock prices high. To be a member of the working poor is to be an anonymous donor, a nameless benefactor, to everyone else. (p. 221)
See also Barbara Ehrenreich (born August 26, 1941, in Butte, Montana) is a prominent liberal American writer, columnist, feminist, socialist and political activist. ...
Eric Arthur Blair (25 June 1903 [1] [2] – 21 January 1950), better known by the pen name George Orwell, was an English author and journalist. ...
Down and Out in Paris and London is George Orwells semi-autobiographical account of living in poverty in both cities. ...
Polly Toynbee (born Mary Louisa Toynbee on December 27, 1946) is a journalist and writer in the United Kingdom, and has been a columnist for The Guardian newspaper since 1998. ...
For other persons named Jack London, see Jack London (disambiguation). ...
This page may meet Wikipedias criteria for speedy deletion. ...
Jacob Riis in 1906 Jacob August Riis (May 3, 1849 - May 26, 1914), a Danish-American muckraker journalist, photographer, and social reformer, was born in Ribe, Denmark. ...
How the Other Half Lives: Studies Among the Tenements of New York was a pioneering work of photojournalism by Jacob Riis, a Danish immigrant reporter, published in 1890, in which he documented the squalid living conditions in the slums of New York City. ...
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