Nickel and Dimed and Low Class Issues - Essay Example

Nickel and Dimed Barbara Ehrenreich worked as an undercover journalist to discover the hard facts about the low-wage workers in America. She renounced her comfortable life to join the working class people, who were seen undergoing extreme hardships with their poverty-level wages. Therefore, what she has narrated in Nickel and Dimed is an account of her bitter experience as a low-class worker. She worked in several places in America to find out whether the situation is the same for all such workers everywhere in America. The irony is that America is a rich and prosperous country, where everyone is supposed to be enjoying a comfortable life. Barbara’s book also exposes the hollowness of the 1996 Welfare Reforms. It raises several questions about the actual living cost in America. The available calculations on the minimum monthly income required to lead a decent life get questioned by Barbara’s thrilling discoveries. This paper is a brief analysis of Nickel and Dimed, written by Barbara, to know the real truth about the working class life in America. At the suggestion of Lewis Lepham, the editor of Harper’s, Barbara decides to disguise herself as a low-wage worker and study the living conditions of the working class people in America. She also decides not to reveal her true identity. She sends out about twenty applications for the job of a waitress. The ads inviting applications are plenty. The first place Barbara works is in her hometown of Key West. She gets a job as a waitress in a posh restaurant. She makes her calculations about her daily expense. She thinks that by working for seven dollars a day she can get a place to live by paying $500 a month. Almost the same amount, she hopes, she will be able to save for food and gas. But, to her surprise, she finds that she can earn only $2.43 an hour, plus some tips. The work is from 2 to 10 p. m. She gets a room 30 miles away from the place of work and it takes 45 minutes to commute. Most of these working people have no television or fan in their rooms. This income, in fact, is not enough for a single person. The workers with children simply cannot think of managing a family life. They cannot think of medical insurances too. Barbara narrates the difficulties they face, when they suffer from a small problem like tooth ache. And the job has no security. Anytime anybody can be fired. Barbara moved from one job to another, from one place to another, to see the difference. But almost everywhere the experience is same, be it New York City, Bay Area, Jackson Hole, or Boston. She gets on getting the same feel of poverty, the real proletarian miseries. The workers are always under watch. The managers can relax, but not a worker. Barbara writes, “So I wipe, I clean, I consolidate ketchup bottles and recheck the cheesecake supply, even tour the tables to make sure the customer evaluation forms are all standing perkily in their places - wondering all the time how many calories I burn in these strictly theatrical exercises” (Barbara). There is also the racial discrimination. In spite of being a white, she could not manage to meet her both ends. This makes her think of the miseries of the blacks. As Barbara has the real life assets waiting for her outside her disguised life, she could feel the real difference. She also realized that low-wage work is not a solution to poverty. Just having a job and working hard cannot provide a better life. The real provocation to go through this low life comes from her desire to collect evidence as an eye-witness. This will help her to prove her points as a socialist. She has not been happy with the secondary research materials available to her. She believes that unless real welfare measures are not enacted by the government, the standard of the working class cannot be improved. As a socialist, Barbara has been serious in her efforts to help the working class in overcoming their difficulties. The paradox, according to the author, is that America is a land of plenty, where honey and milk flow abundantly. The opportunities are plenty. Yet the down-under life in this capitalistic country remains something beyond the imagination of a socialist like Barbara. Her experience as waitress, hotel maid, house cleaner, nursing home aide, and Walmart salesperson reveal the darker aide of America. The shocking discovery of the life of these unskilled workers also exposes a quite different economic activity going on in the country, which is un-American. Barbara has been aware of the flourishing “hospitality industry”. She cleverly avoids jobs like hotel front-desk clerk and the jobs where the dress speaks a different story to the viewers. She keeps her eyes and ears open to receive every kind of hard experience she could ever gather from the people around. There are several stories about the life of her colleagues narrated in the book: “And after he was gone she spent several months living in her truck, peeing in a plastic pee bottle and reading by candlelight at night, but you cant live in a truck in the summer, since you need to have the windows down, which means anything can get in, from mosquitoes on up” (Barbara). The management policy is that within the shortest time available, maximum work is to be extracted from these workers. One cannot think of rest or gossip. Always someone is watching how the workers move and conduct themselves. The workload also was severe: “Of the twenty-seven tables, up to six are usually mine at any time, though on slow afternoons or if Gail is off; I sometimes have the whole place to myself” (Barbara). Thus, Barbara “drifts along like this in some dreary proletarian style” (Barbara). The author recollects the mandatory meeting held every week for the workers. It was mainly held to remind the workers about the restrictions imposed on them by the management. The meeting is not for educating the workers. It is usually full of rebukes. When one boss has finished pinpointing the mistakes, the other manager gets up to speak. The most commonly used word in their speeches is “stop”. The workers are always at the receiving end. Barbara recollects her experience in the restaurant: “Managers can sit - for hours at a time if they want - but its their job to see that no one else ever does, even when theres nothing to do” (Barbara). There is a close watch on their use of drugs, a common habit among the low-wage workers. Once caught, they are fired immediately. Barbara’s colleague, Stu, was sacked for using drug. At the same time, vital things like housing are never discussed at the meeting. Housing is the core problem dealt in her book by Barbara. It is just not possible for any low-paid worker to have a decent house with the wage he or she receives. She says, “According to the National Coalition for the Homeless, for example, in 1998 it took, on average nationwide, an hourly wage of $8.89 to afford a one-bedroom apartment” (Barbara). Her colleague, Gail, shares a room with a person in a down-town for $250. He hits her, but she can’t leave the place. Six-month pregnant Annette is abandoned by her husband, and she lives with her mother. Joan sleeps in a van parked outside a shop. All these problems compel them to take up another job along with the one they are already struggling through. Thus, Barbara also takes up another work along with her present job. The physical strain it causes is unbearable, says the author. “But theres another capacity of the neuromuscular system, which is pain. I start tossing back drugstore-brand ibuprofen pills as if they were vitamin C, four before each shift, because an old mouse-related repetitive-stress injury in my upper back has come back to full-spasm strength, thanks to the tray carrying” (Barbara). Thus what emerges from her direct experience is that it is not humanly possible to live with the low wage these unfortunate workers receive, in spite of their hard work. There is severe criticism about Nickel and Dime. Bradford DeLong is a very good admirer of Barbara. Yet this book is badly criticized. “I have loved all of Barbara Ehrenreichs previous books ... But this book was different. When I finished this book, I looked at it with a certain sense of what I can only call... loathing... “(DeLong). In short, there are favorable and unfavorable views about the book. The reasons given are political and economical. Most of the people agree that some political and sociological solutions are required to take care of the welfare of the working class. But the word socialism is not acceptable. However, many important issues come up for discussion as a result of Barbara’s investigations. How the living wages is to be calculated is the main one. Treating workers like suspected criminals is another important matter highlighted by Barbara. The question of overtime pay, health insurance for the workers, and the retirement benefits are equally important. Last, but not the least, is the need for the low-wage workers to unite and organize themselves in order to get their essential needs recognized. But, it is America, and such organized bargain is not the way of a capitalistic country. Though all these can be left to the politicians and reformers, Nickel and Dimed cannot be ignored by any authority. Finally, any discussion on this book becomes incomplete without praising the great style in which it is written. Reference DeLong, J. Bradford. “Barbara Ehrenreichs Nickel and Dimed and the Working Poor”. file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/Ravi/My%20Documents/comments.htm Ehrenreich, Barbara. Nickel and Dimed: on (not) getting by in America. http://www.wesjones.com/ehrenreich.htm. Retrieved on 27 October, 2007. Read More