Perfect Paragraph: Nickel And Dimed

After reading Nickel and Dimed and reviewing the NASW Code of Ethics I found a few parts of the code of ethics Ehrenreich did not follow. I believe she was in breach of privacy and confidentiality, dishonesty, fraud, and deception, and integrity.

In Barbara Ehrenreich's book "Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting by In America" we read about a middle aged journalist undertaking a social experiment of the greatest magnitude. The journalist is Ehrenreich herself and the experiment was to find out how a woman, recently removed from welfare, due to policy reform, would make it on a six or seven dollar an hour wage. The experiment itself started out as just a question in the middle of lunch with one of Ehrenreich's editors, it soon turned into a job assignment. Before starting the experiment, Ehrenreich laid out some ground rules for her to follow during the duration of the assignment. First she could never use

Barbara Ehrenreich's intent in the book Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America exhibited how minimum wage isn't enough for Americans to get by on and that there's no hope for the lower class. Her main objective was achieved by living out the life of the "working poor". During the three cases studies she worked many jobs that are worked by many that are simply striving to live day to day. The jobs she had didn't generate sufficient income to avoid or help her rise out of poverty, in fact the six to seven dollar jobs made survival considerably difficult. Enitially, she believe the jobs didn't require any skill but while on her journey she started to realize they were stressful and drained a lot of energy. In addition to that she

Barbara Ehrenreich’s Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By In America was the first book of its type that I’ve ever read, a real life analysis of what its like to “live in poverty,” working minimum wage jobs trying to make ends meet day in and day out. It was an intriguing story of how a woman with plenty went on to document how she lived without and I found that Ehrenreich’s commentary throughout the book offered a refreshing perspective to the usual conversation that surrounds poverty; she never thought that she was better or better off than those she met working low-paying jobs, and she was always conscious of how race intersected with class throughout her so-called field experiment.

A journalist who has Ph.D in biology wanted to know how people could live with just seven dollars per hour. In Nickel and Dimed, the author, Barbara Ehrenreich, introduces how people live with low-wage jobs. She told that employers sometime see their employees as potential criminal, their employees' work environments do not suit for their works, and the employees's wages does not satisfy what they need to survive.

“You can only become truly accomplished at something you love. Don 't make money your goal. Instead, pursue the things you love doing, and then do them so well that people can 't take their eyes off you.”

In the book, Nickel and Dimed, Barbara Ehrenreich mentions the problem of rents is the market. When the market fails to provide necessary goods, such as affordable housing, we expect the government to step in and help. We decide to believe this, because, in the case of health care, the government offers Medicare to the elderly, Medicare to the poor, and many state programs to poor children. But, with housing, radical increases of the rental market has been followed by a retreat of the public sector.

In Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America, Barbara Ehrenreich tells a powerful and gritty story of daily survival. Her tale transcends the gap that exists between rich and poor and relays a powerful accounting of the dark corners that lie somewhere beyond the popular portrayal of American prosperity. Throughout this book the reader will be intimately introduced to the world of the “working poor”, a place unfamiliar to the vast majority of affluent and middle-class Americans. What makes this world particularly real is the fact that we have all come across the hard-working hotel maid, store associate, or restaurant waitress but we hardly ever think of what their actual lives are like? We regularly dismiss these people as

Were your perceptions of the blue collar Americans transformed or reinforced by nickel and dimmed? Have your notions of poverty and prosperity changed since reading the book? What about your own treatments of waiters, maids, salespeople?

Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America, Is about a woman, a journalist who goes undercover to witness the Welfare Program the government provides for the poor and people in need. Ehrenreich is white and middle class. She claims that her experience would have been radically different had she been a person of color or a single parent. Ehrenreich had not much to worry about other than finding a job and a somewhat comfortable living space. If she had not been white , her experience would have been drastically different in my opinion. With little money, during this time period things were still not too expensive but not too affordable for some people.

The main Topic of Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich is how labor and poverty are used when working and how people have to go through these conditions in order to survive. In the beginning, Barbara Ehrenreich was an undercover journalist search to find the truth behind minimum- wage works. Throughout the book she wrote about people she met and their issues, a boy named George was an example of labor and injustice because he was accused of stealing but it was never proven. Ehrenreich main goal is being able to pay her bills. But she then realizes has to get two more jobs to manage. Hard work has been a huge impact in poverty because of the horrible conditions workers have to go through in order to keep their jobs. Even when times there are

Horatio Alger Jr. was an American writer during the 1800s. During this time period, Alger wrote stories about boys who went from extreme poverty to the average middle class, which is what some consider the American Dream. The stories he wrote always contained the same three elements, according to Harlon L. Dalton of Yale Law School: each of is judged solely on his or her merit; we each have a fair opportunity to develop those merits; ultimately, merit will win out. In spite of these notions, Barbara Ehrenreich, author of Nickel and Dimed, went out into the world as a low-wage worker and tested these hypotheses.

4. What do these details tell you about the writer’s assumptions about the knowledge and experience of readers?

Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich is a very daring book. It explores the idea of how far the issues with poverty have truly gone. It was even scary at times to hear all of the things the media carefully glazes over in such horrific detail. In fact, it would be intriguing to see the story done in a more storytelling type of style rather than with such a rigid structure. With the style it was done in I found myself unable to feel the struggle as much as I could have. This said I still found myself having to pause and reflect on exactly how easy I have had it in life.

Can someone really live and prosper in American receiving minimal income? Can someone create a good lifestyle for themselves on just six to seven dollars an hour? In Nickel and Dimed Barbara Ehrenreich goes undercover to find out if it is indeed possible. Giving herself only $1,000 she leaves the lifestyle that she has come accustomed too and goes to join all the people living the low class way of life.