Instant Access To 100,000+ Essays!

Nickel & Dimed By Barbara Ehrenreich Barbara Ehrenreich is a journalist who posed as an unskilled worker in 1998 to highlight the struggles encountered every day by Americans attempting to live on minimum wage. Ms Ehrenreich had always been interested in poverty but was inspired to conduct this experiment by the new welfare reform laws enacted in 1997. As the result of the new law, people would be expected to leave welfare and get jobs. Sounds good. Unfortunately, the jobs they were able to get really didn’t pay enough to live on. Nickel & Dimed is about her ecperiences as the traveled around america trying to make ends meet just like millions of Americans do everyday. The overall message of the book is that wages in America are too low and rents are too high. Single people and especoally families cannot survive on the wages that unskilled workers are paid. Many families spend their whole life behind in their bills and often have to forego such necessities as food and clothing to keep a roof over their heads or buy medic