Nickel And Dimed
Nickel and Dimed Book Analysis
It's a well known fact that everything in America is over priced, so with everything being over priced and citizens being under paid how are we supposed to expect citizens to survive in this rigged economy? Our economy is set up to benefit the middle-upper class and to take away from the lower class. As we stand by and say to the lower class citizens “get a job”, “work harder and longer”. In Nickel and Dimed, Barbara Ehrenreich proves that minimum wage cannot sustain the quality of life that is perceived as the American Dream let alone provide for a livable life at all. No matter how hard you work or how determined you are it just isn't possible to live and prosper off of minimum wage. Social critic and author …show more content…
Through Ehrenreich's experiences she proves that even while being a hard worker who is driven by determination there is no possible way for any US citizen living off minimum wage to achieve the goal of the American Dream. For example The prosperity that was achieved by the middle-upper classes was causing rents to rise, leaving those on society’s bottom classes sandwiched between wages that remained lower than 1973 levels and housing that was quickly becoming unaffordable and …show more content…
For most low wage jobs you acquire $6-$7 an hour, therefore you must work tirelessly for hours on end just to make ends meet. To rent a one bedroom apartment in a lowly populated city the minimum pricing is about $600 a month if you're lucky enough to find an available affordable apartment. Even if you work for 9 hours each day everyday for a week you will make a minimum of $378 (based off of a $6 per hour wage) and a maximum of about $441 (based off of a $7 per hour wage), this wouldnt make for enough to pay for a low cost, one bedroom living space, in a run down part of town and leave you enough to still buy groceries and food to feed yourself. Ehrenreich also writes “Something is wrong, very wrong, when a single person in good health, a person who in addition possesses a working car, can barely support herself by the sweat of her brow. You don’t need a degree in economics to see that wages are too low and rents too high.”. Not only are rents too high prices in general are so inflated its unbelievable. To be able to climb the social and economic
It's a well known fact that everything in America is over priced, so with everything being over priced and citizens being under paid how are we supposed to expect citizens to survive in this rigged economy? Our economy is set up to benefit the middle-upper class and to take away from the lower class. As we stand by and say to the lower class citizens “get a job”, “work harder and longer”. In Nickel and Dimed, Barbara Ehrenreich proves that minimum wage cannot sustain the quality of life that is perceived as the American Dream let alone provide for a livable life at all. No matter how hard you work or how determined you are it just isn't possible to live and prosper off of minimum wage. Social critic and author …show more content…
Through Ehrenreich's experiences she proves that even while being a hard worker who is driven by determination there is no possible way for any US citizen living off minimum wage to achieve the goal of the American Dream. For example The prosperity that was achieved by the middle-upper classes was causing rents to rise, leaving those on society’s bottom classes sandwiched between wages that remained lower than 1973 levels and housing that was quickly becoming unaffordable and …show more content…
For most low wage jobs you acquire $6-$7 an hour, therefore you must work tirelessly for hours on end just to make ends meet. To rent a one bedroom apartment in a lowly populated city the minimum pricing is about $600 a month if you're lucky enough to find an available affordable apartment. Even if you work for 9 hours each day everyday for a week you will make a minimum of $378 (based off of a $6 per hour wage) and a maximum of about $441 (based off of a $7 per hour wage), this wouldnt make for enough to pay for a low cost, one bedroom living space, in a run down part of town and leave you enough to still buy groceries and food to feed yourself. Ehrenreich also writes “Something is wrong, very wrong, when a single person in good health, a person who in addition possesses a working car, can barely support herself by the sweat of her brow. You don’t need a degree in economics to see that wages are too low and rents too high.”. Not only are rents too high prices in general are so inflated its unbelievable. To be able to climb the social and economic