Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America
Back at the turn of the century, journalist Barbara Ehrenreich spent some time working low wage jobs as part of an experiment to find out, first hand, how people living in poverty make do. She chose three different cities (Key West, FL, Portland, ME, and Minneapolis, MN), where she attempted to work and live for a month. Then she wrote about her experiences in this book.
I'm not sure I would have picked up Nickel and Dimed if it hadn't been chosen for my book club. I was a little hesitant going into it. Though this book was written 15 years ago, the premise of it has become something of an insulting fad. People regularly engage in these experiments, wearing hijabs or turbans to the mall, dying their skin a different color, or attempting to feed themselves on $2 or $3 a day in order to see for themselves how the other people live. But built into this experiment is an inherent distrust of that other. Why not just ask people who live these experiences every day and then believe them when they tell you how awful it can be?
I went into this book on the lookout for flaws in Ehrenreich's experimental design, looking for moments when her privilege shone through. And there were quite a few of these moments. She kept her already paid-for car and was able to work two jobs because of that. She has a history of good nutrition, health care and gym memberships, which made her far more physically fit than most of the people around her, even though she was in her late fifties at the time of this experiment. When things get really bad, she's able to simply walk out and return to her "real" life. For all this, she actually does a really good job of recognizing and pointing out her privilege. As she points out in the introduction, as bad as things sometimes get for her, she is living a best-case scenario.
Ehrenreich also does a good job of sharing the experiences of the people around her. She shows how easily people can get stuck in this life, how no amount of hard work is a guarantee for upward mobility. And for all her privilege, her standards erode quite sharply as she attempts to find shelter and feed herself on $7 an hour.
When this book was written, $7 an hour was considered a living wage. Minimum wage was still between $5 and $6. But even then, Ehrenreich had trouble finding a reasonable, affordable living situation. In Minneapolis she must settle for a decrepit motel room with neither refrigerator nor microwave and subsists almost entirely on fast food. Even then she can barely afford her lifestyle, thanks to sky-rocketing rents. And this was back when America was still fairly prosperous, before the housing bubble popped, before the dot-com bust even. Things have only gotten worse since then. And it's only recently that the minimum wage has started to increase again. Though it's still not kept up with a real living wage (which is mostly estimated to be about $15/hour at this point)
This book was actually quite harrowing. Knowing how much worse the situation has gotten only makes it moreso. And after reading about Ehrenreich's experience cleaning houses with a maid service, I have a strong desire to fire the maid service I'm currently using and just clean the house myself. I'm no longer confident that they actually clean my house, instead of just making it look clean. Through no fault of their own, of course, there's just no way to actually clean my house in the hour they're allotted, and they have to cut a lot of corners to stay on schedule. Suffice to say that after finishing this book, I went and cleaned my entire kitchen before I could even think of cooking in it again. And I'm going to be digging my heels in even more about tipping at least 20% every time I go to a restaurant.
You should definitely read this book, as outdated and occasionally flawed as it is. At roughly 200 pages it goes by really quickly. And you won't be able to look at the world the same way after you finish it. Or even after you finish the first section.
I'm not sure I would have picked up Nickel and Dimed if it hadn't been chosen for my book club. I was a little hesitant going into it. Though this book was written 15 years ago, the premise of it has become something of an insulting fad. People regularly engage in these experiments, wearing hijabs or turbans to the mall, dying their skin a different color, or attempting to feed themselves on $2 or $3 a day in order to see for themselves how the other people live. But built into this experiment is an inherent distrust of that other. Why not just ask people who live these experiences every day and then believe them when they tell you how awful it can be?
I went into this book on the lookout for flaws in Ehrenreich's experimental design, looking for moments when her privilege shone through. And there were quite a few of these moments. She kept her already paid-for car and was able to work two jobs because of that. She has a history of good nutrition, health care and gym memberships, which made her far more physically fit than most of the people around her, even though she was in her late fifties at the time of this experiment. When things get really bad, she's able to simply walk out and return to her "real" life. For all this, she actually does a really good job of recognizing and pointing out her privilege. As she points out in the introduction, as bad as things sometimes get for her, she is living a best-case scenario.
Ehrenreich also does a good job of sharing the experiences of the people around her. She shows how easily people can get stuck in this life, how no amount of hard work is a guarantee for upward mobility. And for all her privilege, her standards erode quite sharply as she attempts to find shelter and feed herself on $7 an hour.
When this book was written, $7 an hour was considered a living wage. Minimum wage was still between $5 and $6. But even then, Ehrenreich had trouble finding a reasonable, affordable living situation. In Minneapolis she must settle for a decrepit motel room with neither refrigerator nor microwave and subsists almost entirely on fast food. Even then she can barely afford her lifestyle, thanks to sky-rocketing rents. And this was back when America was still fairly prosperous, before the housing bubble popped, before the dot-com bust even. Things have only gotten worse since then. And it's only recently that the minimum wage has started to increase again. Though it's still not kept up with a real living wage (which is mostly estimated to be about $15/hour at this point)
This book was actually quite harrowing. Knowing how much worse the situation has gotten only makes it moreso. And after reading about Ehrenreich's experience cleaning houses with a maid service, I have a strong desire to fire the maid service I'm currently using and just clean the house myself. I'm no longer confident that they actually clean my house, instead of just making it look clean. Through no fault of their own, of course, there's just no way to actually clean my house in the hour they're allotted, and they have to cut a lot of corners to stay on schedule. Suffice to say that after finishing this book, I went and cleaned my entire kitchen before I could even think of cooking in it again. And I'm going to be digging my heels in even more about tipping at least 20% every time I go to a restaurant.
You should definitely read this book, as outdated and occasionally flawed as it is. At roughly 200 pages it goes by really quickly. And you won't be able to look at the world the same way after you finish it. Or even after you finish the first section.
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