Barbara Ehrenreich's Nickel and Dimed
Barbara Ehrenreich is a writer and journalist who decided to conduct an experiment and find out for herself what it is like to live on the minimum wage. For one month at a time she entered various communities, taking on minimum wage positions and trying to stay ahead. Ehrenreich detailed her experience in the book Nickel and Dimed. This books offers insight into the real lives and struggles of these people, showing just how difficult life is for them. As well as this, it is a striking account of how the lower class are treated by their employers and by people in general.

The first thing that was immediately noticeable in the book was just how hard it was for people on the minimum wage just to achieve the basics of having food and shelter. Ehrenreich started the experiment in Key est and was not planning…...

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Works Cited

Ehrenreich, B. (2001). Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America. New York: Henry Holt.

Rent, gas, utilities, food, and clothing become a burden because the market is not set up for those who make the least but those who make more than that and it really does not matter how much more because at a certain level, it is all too much and the low earners are simply left out of the system altogether. Nickel and Dimed also taught me that social responsibility is mandatory if we are to address this problem and do something about it. hile Ehrenreich does not open address solutions for the problems she encountered, it is clear that something must be done. I do not think I will ever be able to walk into a al-Mart and look at the "associates" the same way again. Those with less understanding say that if they do not want to work there, they should find better jobs but this book taught…...

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Work Cited

Ehrenreich, Barbara. Nickel and Dimed. New York: Metropolitan Books. 2001.

For example, Ehrenreich tamed her naturally assertive nature into a more tame and likable demeanor: one that corresponded with gender norms as well as with norms for prospective employees. orking with one career coach in Georgia, the author presented a confident, convincing sales pitch. She marketed herself and her work skills admirably for a whole hour before the coach bluntly told her without humor that she seemed angry. If Barbara Alexander were male, he would have been confident and sure of himself, not angry.
Ehrenreich as Alexander also pretended to care about people and companies and industries to get a job. Her work reflects Durkheim's principle of anomie. She pretended to be a team player, a mover and a shaker. The fact that Ehrenreich needed to lie to expose the mistruth of the American Dream perfectly fits the cynical tone of Bait and Switch.

The American Dream baits many if not…...

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Works Cited

Ehrenreich, Barbara. Bait and Switch. New York: Metropolitan, 2005.

Nickeled and Dimed
In an attempt to prevent families from living below the poverty line in the United States, the government ensures that people are paid a minimum-wage. Through this minimum-wage, the government believes that people can afford to pay their rents and bills, and cover the costs of their groceries, etc. However, this is not true, as the minimum-wage is indeed too little for the average family to survive on. This is because of the soaring rents that people have a hard time paying; with the meager wages they earn they can hardly make ends meet.

The current situation in places like California is considered difficult to get by for the minimum-wage earner. It is considered impossible to escape poverty, realizing that the minimum wage that is given to workers is insufficient. The current solutions proposed are not enough to deal with the problem, and the government needs to take steps…...

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References

Althusser, L. 'Marxism and humanism' in For Marx, tr. 1977, esp. sec. 4 (pp. 231-236) 1964.

Durkheim, emile. 1982. "Debate on the Relationship between Ethnology and Sociology." Pp. 209-10 in The Rules of Sociological Method and Selected Texts on Sociology and its Method, edited by Steven Lukes. Translated by W.D. Halls. London and Basingstoke: Macmillan.

Durkheim, emile. The Division of Labor in Society. Translated by W.D. Halls. New York: The Free Press. 1984.

Ehrenreich, Barbara, Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America, Metropolitan Books, 2001.

Flaws in ArgumentEhrenreich (2000) makes several fallacies in her argumentative essay, Maid to Order published in Harpers Magazine. Her main argument is that no self-respecting, independent woman would or should submit to doing domestic housework the old-fashioned way (p. 1). The fallacies Ehrenreich commits start with personal incredulity, followed by bandwagon fallacy and appeal to authority fallacy. This paper will discuss each of these three fallacies in turn and how they are flaws in Ehrenreichs article.The personal incredulity fallacy occurs when someone disbelieves a claim simply because they find it hard to believe. This is often due to a lack of understanding or familiarity with the topic. For example, someone might dismiss the theory of evolution because it seems impossible that complex life forms could have developed from simpler ones. However, personal incredulity is not a valid reason to disbelieve a claim. Just because something is difficult to understand does…...

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References

Chaffee, J. (2012). Thinking Critically. Boston: Wadsworth.

Ehrenreich, B. (2000). Maid to Order. Harper’s Magazine, April 2000, 1-2.

Kelley, D. (2013). The art of reasoning: An introduction to logic and critical thinking.  WW Norton & Company.

he sharpness of the division that Ehrenreich perceives might be at least partially a symptom of her ultimate lack of subjectivity. In her introduction, Ehrenreich admits that she has many advantages over actual minimum-wage workers, not the least of which is the knowledge that even should she fail in this endeavor, she has a nice home and a "real" job to return to, and that she is not in any danger of going hungry or cold (Ehrenreich, 2001).. his presents the major limitation to her mode of study; no matter what, she is bringing an incredibly subjective and judgmental eye to her research. his shows up as a strength in hr writing, making the stories far more human and interesting, not to mention intentionally provocative, but is an immense detriment to her scholarship.

he main issue Ehrenreich touches on is, the immense unfairness of the minimum-wage situation. Clearly, life is not…...

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The sharpness of the division that Ehrenreich perceives might be at least partially a symptom of her ultimate lack of subjectivity. In her introduction, Ehrenreich admits that she has many advantages over actual minimum-wage workers, not the least of which is the knowledge that even should she fail in this endeavor, she has a nice home and a "real" job to return to, and that she is not in any danger of going hungry or cold (Ehrenreich, 2001).. This presents the major limitation to her mode of study; no matter what, she is bringing an incredibly subjective and judgmental eye to her research. This shows up as a strength in hr writing, making the stories far more human and interesting, not to mention intentionally provocative, but is an immense detriment to her scholarship.

The main issue Ehrenreich touches on is, the immense unfairness of the minimum-wage situation. Clearly, life is not truly sustainable for an individual on a minimum-wage income unless two jobs are held. Ehrenreich is unable to work a twelve hour day for more than a few days in a row, though one wonders if she could do so if her life truly depended on it (Ehrenreich, 2001). But the fact is, we believe in this country that no one should have to do such a thing. Many people do it, however, and manage to pull themselves out of poverty. Though there is definite unfairness to the situation, there is not the hopelessness that Ehrenreich insinuates. In general, however, the economic landscape always seems to remain bleak and monotonous to low-wage worker. The jobs they work are always available, so they are somewhat more insulated from economic crises, but rising prices hurt them more. Basically, when all you're doing is just scraping by, one day seems very much like the next, and major economic tides seem like far-off events. it's hard to care about bank failures when you can't even afford to put food on your plate.

Ehrenreich, B. (2001) Nickel and Dimed. New York: Henry Holt & Co.

" As Ehrenreich found, in some case you are your resume, but in other cases the individual is clearly NOT their resume. Instead, looking at what the book calls white-collar life "at its most miserable and precarious" (p. 216), one can only glean that this is clearly not the place for everyone, nor is it the do all end-all of Protestant expectations of actualization. In fact, pining for that perfect corporate job will likely not fulfill many needs because it is a roller-coaster of Machiavellianism, game-playing, extreme selfishness from employers and a purposeful sense of never being good enough, never doing a good enough job, and indeed, keeping the individual feeling that they must continually do better just to maintain -- without consequence to health, family, or indeed, the very actualization that was the point of school and job in the first place. Instead, if there is any lesson in…...

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REFERENCES

Ehrenreich, B. (October 8, 1989). Interview -- Booknotes. CSPAN. Cited in:

http://www.booknotes.org/Watch/9435-1/Barbara+Ehrenreich.aspx

____. (September 26, 2005). Bait and Switch. The New Yorker. Cited in:

 http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2005/09/26/050926crbn_brieflynoted3

Ehrenreich Nickeled and Dimed
In Barbara Ehrenreich's Nickel and Dimed, the workers trapped in dead-end service sector jobs have virtually no chance at all of escaping poverty or obtaining any meaningful quality of life. That is one of the main themes of the book, a constant struggle for mere subsistence with a high cost of living and a very poor quality of life. These jobs are all the same in that the employees are expendable, the pay is too low for them to survive, and the benefits are often nonexistent. They are often filled by women, young people and immigrants, and they offer no real future of any kind, much less a path to middle-class status. hen Ehrenreich wrote this book, the Great Recession had not yet begun, so this top of work was plentiful, and as she discovered employers ran want ads almost continuously due to the high turnover. Today,…...

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WORKS CITED

Ehrenreich, Barbara. Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America. Metropolitan Books, 2001, 2008.

Ehrenreich Meets Mills
The sociologist of the 1950's C. right Mills' paraphrases a common American belief that one's work or livelihood is an exuberant expression of the soul, rather than a way to pay for life's necessities and to provide for one's private pleasures. This cliche about the uplifting nature of work reflects a common, American misapprehension particularly prevalent in Millis' day that what one does for a living in a capitalist society can be equated with one's character and self-worth.

Yet, in her work as an undercover journalist in her text, Nickel and Dimed: On Not Getting By in America, Barbara Ehrenreich noted that this ideology was prevalent amongst lower-wage workers as well. hile working at the lower levels of organizations, far away from Millis' white collar workers, Ehrenreich met individuals in so-called menial jobs who were writers like herself during their off hours, and individuals who put their personal safety…...

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Works Cited

Ehrenreich, Barbara. Nickel and Dimed: On Not Getting By in America. Houghton Mifflin, 2001.

Mills, C. Wright. The White-Collar Worker. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1951.

Imperialism is destructive to all but a select few persons in positions of financial and political power.
Also, because female migration is often not coerced but undertaken by some degree of choice, the type of imperialism arising from the female labor force is subtle and generally overlooked by sociologists, economists, and policy makers. As a result, humanitarian issues can easily fall by the wayside. For example, the women who leave their countries of origin sometimes leave behind family members and in some cases, husbands and children. The flow of labor from developing to developed nations depletes the sending nations' labor force and further impoverishes them, increasing their dependency on economic powerhouses like the United States. As economies in the third world collapse, workers, farmers, and families suffer from a lack of affordable health care, education and other social services. A potential side-effect in sending countries may be higher rates of…...

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References

Daorueng, P. & Yamin, K. (1998). Third World Resurgence 94. Retrieved 30 September 2005 at  http://www.twnside.org.sg/title/last-cn.htm 

Ehrenreich, B. & Hochschild, A.R. (2002). Global Woman. New York: Metropolitan.

Global Woman
The book Global Woman: Nannies, Maids and Sex Workers in the New Economy by Barbara Ehrenreich and Arlie Hothschild is a series of essays that explore the subject of female migration at the beginning of the 21st century. The work contains eight essays covering a range of topics, which are related to each other by a common thread. The subjects include migrant maids, prostitution as a means of gaining access to legal migration, overseas brides, and the role of global cities in female migration. The common thread to these essays is the migration of lower-wage women around the world, and the patterns than such migration takes at present. The authors and editors of this project tie these essays together under the umbrella argument that one form of modern globalization has women in the wealthier nations turning over "women's work" to women from the underdeveloped world. They note that fewer…...

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References:

Ehrenreich, B. & Hochschild, A. (2002) Global Woman: Nannies, Maids and Sex Workers in the new Economy. New York: Henry Holt.

Nickel and Dream
People who are born or raised in the United States share unique character traits because of the American culture. Because this is considered a land of freedom and opportunity there are rights and gifts that are promised to each citizen. The American Dream is the unique idea that anyone who is willing to work hard can come from nothing and achieve their life's goals and ambitions so long as they live in America. Anyone, no matter how low class their level of birth, can succeed and have all the material possessions, money, and related power that they want as long as they are willing to put in the effort to achieve it. It is a promise which is two-sided because it requires the American to reach out for what the nation is holding above their head. In response to this ideology, many American authors have taken it upon…...

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Works Cited:

Ehrenreich, Barbara. Nickel and Dimed: On (not) Getting by in America. New York:

Metropolitan, 2001. Print.

King, Martin Luther. "I Have a Dream." 1963. Print.

" (Ehrenreich, 2001, p.44)
At least as a waitress, Ehrenreich is visible. Maids, which are usually, except in all-white areas like Maine, utterly invisible and socially isolated in the socially stratified community. orse yet, while Ehrenreich might have had some anxiety about passing, even educated Black women occasionally have trouble 'passing' for the class they are a part of. 'Oh Look Mommy a baby maid," Ehrenreich quotes the poet "Audre Lorde" who "reported an experience she had in 1967," as the poet "wheel[ed] my two-year-old daughter in a shopping cart through a supermarket." (Ehrenreich, 2001, citing Mary Romero, Maid in the U.S.A.: Perspective on Gender [New York, Routledge, 1992, p.72] footnote p. 79) Even in infancy, Lorde's daughter was targeted as a potential maid, not a potential poet.

If Ehrenreich were not white, in other words, she would have had no trouble 'passing' as lower class and securing the worst type of…...

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Works Cited

Ehrenreich, Barbara. (2001) Nickel and Dimed. New York Henry Holt & Co/

Hughes, Michael & Carolyn J. Kroehler. (2001) Sociology: The Core. McGraw Hill.

Household duties are traditionally, in many cultures, considered the province of women. Even after they receive an education, women often stay home and raise the children rather than put their energy into building a career. The labor that women perform in the home including cleaning and childrearing duties is almost always unpaid work, leading to a situation in which women are essentially domestic servants. Moreover, with educated women in the home, the world continues to be dominated by a patriarchal structure in which men remain in positions of political, social, and economic power. In "Maid to Order," Barbara Ehrenreich argues that the modern and post-modern feminist movement has created a massive and meaningful shift in the role of women in society but the author points out that this change has only so far impacted the lives of wealthy white women. Although the author misses a few key points, Ehrenreich is…...

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Works Cited

Ehrenreich, Barbara. "Maid to Order." Harper. 2000.

However, the social perceptions that could have gained her an easier entry into low-class work also could have kept her there, and prevented her from entering a management position. Gender in the absence of race seems to be the cutting divide at the Maids, while the individual who is in charge of the franchise is male, and a male voice guides the Hispanic demonstrator on the tape. But in more diverse Minnesota at the al-Mart, Ehrenreich is recruited as "management material," a status not extended to her nonwhite colleagues. (Ehrenreich, p.109) "Much of our interaction with others consists of subtle negotiation over just how much deference, honor, respect, and awe we are to extend and receive." (Kroehler & Hughes, p. 178) Divisions of respect are not exclusive to race, but race seems to predominate, with class, language, and gender stepping in only afterwards, in the absence of clear racial…...

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Works Cited

Ehrenreich, Barbara. Nickel and Dimed. New York: Henry Holt. 2001.

Kroehler Carolyn J. & Michael Hughes. Sociology: The Core. Sixth Edition New York: McGraw Hill 1999.