“Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting by in America” by Barbara Ehrenreich Essay

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In the current essay I am going to analyze the story “Nickel-and-Dimed: On (not) Getting by in America” written by Barbara Ehrenreich. This story is told by the author; she describes the experiment which consisted in her experience of another side of life, poverty and other aspects that are an integral part of common citizens of small towns which are not inhabited by tourists: “My aim is nothing so mistily subjective as to ‘experience poverty’ or find out how it ‘really feels’ to be a long-term low-waged worker” (Ehrenreich 401).

The story describes the process and results of the experiment, the knowledge acquired during the experiment and the aspects influencing the lives of the low-waged workers, their living conditions and methods of making money. The author wants to prove that a poor single woman can become successful due to work, and that “work will lift poor women out of poverty while simultaneously inflating their self-esteem and hence their future value in the labor market” (Ehrenreich 401). She makes effort to prove that even unskilled people can obtain positions after a period of training and as a result of hard work; that a person can live and work on the low-waged job.

The story is the enumeration of the adventures of the author, and the results of the experiment. Thus I agree that women should be considered valuable workers and that the wages should correspond to the level of professional qualities and should not be caused by the age and sex. The story raises themes of poverty, social status, feminism, sex discrimination, living conditions and other issues related to these ones, suchlike fair-market rent, the elimination of jobs, the hourly wages.

I like the way chosen by the author in order to make an experiment; she considers herself “an experimental scientist by training” (Ehrenreich 402); and expects to find some “hidden economies in the world of the low-wage worker” (Ehrenreich 402). I admire people who are ready to leave everything for the experiment, for scientific value of the research and the results acquired at a price of some specific obstacles and difficulties.

Another fact that I like about the story is that the experiment seems to be very objective because the author decides not to use any kind of knowledge acquired in her ‘previous’ life. The impartialness of the experiment makes it valuable from the scientific point of view because any case of scientific study should have some experimental basis.

The first thing the author does is finds a room and begins to search a job. After some period of time she finds it impossible to live using only wages from one job, so she decides to find a second job or an alternative one in order to earn more money. The author describes to the readers the living conditions of the low-wage workers.

Another thing I like very much about the story and this thing I probably like the most is that the author describes not only the experiment, its process and results, but also the lives of common Americans, common people who work on low-waged jobs and are able to maintain their families. I like the style of writing and the methods of description. The story contains unobtrusive descriptions of every day life of common people; it is easy to read and understand. Though it is an experimental research, the author is sincere in her conclusions and inference. The research is not ending at finding a low-waged job and a place to live; it involves making friends and living a life of a low-waged worker with two jobs.

Works Cited

Ehrenreich, Barbara. “Nickel-and-Dimed: On (not) Getting by in America”. Economics, Work, and Consumer Culture. 1999. 400-430.

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IvyPanda. (2021, November 29). “Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting by in America” by Barbara Ehrenreich. https://ivypanda.com/essays/nickel-and-dimed-on-not-getting-by-in-america-by-barbara-ehrenreich/

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"“Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting by in America” by Barbara Ehrenreich." IvyPanda, 29 Nov. 2021, ivypanda.com/essays/nickel-and-dimed-on-not-getting-by-in-america-by-barbara-ehrenreich/.

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IvyPanda. (2021) '“Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting by in America” by Barbara Ehrenreich'. 29 November.

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IvyPanda. 2021. "“Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting by in America” by Barbara Ehrenreich." November 29, 2021. https://ivypanda.com/essays/nickel-and-dimed-on-not-getting-by-in-america-by-barbara-ehrenreich/.

1. IvyPanda. "“Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting by in America” by Barbara Ehrenreich." November 29, 2021. https://ivypanda.com/essays/nickel-and-dimed-on-not-getting-by-in-america-by-barbara-ehrenreich/.


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IvyPanda. "“Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting by in America” by Barbara Ehrenreich." November 29, 2021. https://ivypanda.com/essays/nickel-and-dimed-on-not-getting-by-in-america-by-barbara-ehrenreich/.

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