Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich
Introduction
Barbara Ehrenreich began her research to explore how people attempting to move from welfare to work are managing—if at all. This exploration also extended to those who are apart of the working class and having not been on welfare. Attempting to place herself in the position of her subjects, Ehrenreich strived to see if she were able to survive on the minimal income provided by a series of low level and low paying jobs. In was her foreknowledge of laws and the inclusion of these laws in Nickel and Dimed that brought about exposing historical and present-day 21st century contradictory practices, laws, and regulations that exploit the poor working class (if not through her experiment but by the subjects’ honest experience). In addition to exposing this existing institutionalized discrimination, whether unconsciously or consciously, Ehrenreich demonstrates with her approach the severe state of class and racial segregation as it pertains to what jobs are available and to whom and what kind of lives are produced in such a class divided American society.
Consequently, Ehrenreich’s method does not come without any flaws. It can be argued that when trying to place herself in the shoes of her subjects, she possessed some essential advantages that the average poor working class citizen simply do not have such as her level of educational attainment, White privilege regardless of her class status, and start-off funds that allowed her both the mobility and comfort of surviving. This inevitable comfort reminded her of the obvious fact that her participation in the poor working class was strictly “temporary”; thus, relieving her of the honest stresses and worry that plagues the poor working class—stresses and worries that often times leads to a battle with survival and can result in behavior that is often not analyzed but categorized; deeming a person (or a group of individuals) as “criminals” rather than people who are trying to adapt to- and endure the unequal
Barbara Ehrenreich began her research to explore how people attempting to move from welfare to work are managing—if at all. This exploration also extended to those who are apart of the working class and having not been on welfare. Attempting to place herself in the position of her subjects, Ehrenreich strived to see if she were able to survive on the minimal income provided by a series of low level and low paying jobs. In was her foreknowledge of laws and the inclusion of these laws in Nickel and Dimed that brought about exposing historical and present-day 21st century contradictory practices, laws, and regulations that exploit the poor working class (if not through her experiment but by the subjects’ honest experience). In addition to exposing this existing institutionalized discrimination, whether unconsciously or consciously, Ehrenreich demonstrates with her approach the severe state of class and racial segregation as it pertains to what jobs are available and to whom and what kind of lives are produced in such a class divided American society.
Consequently, Ehrenreich’s method does not come without any flaws. It can be argued that when trying to place herself in the shoes of her subjects, she possessed some essential advantages that the average poor working class citizen simply do not have such as her level of educational attainment, White privilege regardless of her class status, and start-off funds that allowed her both the mobility and comfort of surviving. This inevitable comfort reminded her of the obvious fact that her participation in the poor working class was strictly “temporary”; thus, relieving her of the honest stresses and worry that plagues the poor working class—stresses and worries that often times leads to a battle with survival and can result in behavior that is often not analyzed but categorized; deeming a person (or a group of individuals) as “criminals” rather than people who are trying to adapt to- and endure the unequal