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 belie...