“Nickel and Dimed” by Barbara Ehrenreich.

A Critique of Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich

Barbara Ehrenreich 's book , Nickel and Dimed , was certainly a wonderful read and is verily able to open the reader 's eyes to a reality that is usually set aside by many . The book was originally a compilation of her researches as she went undercover to write about people who had to work multiple jobs just to make ends meet . Those people whose wages were below the minimum wage and were so busy with work they were not able to pursue their own interests

and who were also supporting dependents

As a whole , the author was able to document her experiences as she wrote in her journal her everyday experiences . Through this , the readers were able to have a glimpse into the lives of people she had worked with as a waitress at Florida , a healthcare aide at Maine and a salesperson of Wal-Mart at Minnesota . To be able to do this properly , though , she had to fake her qualifications and disguise her motives from her fellow workers . As a journalist , she also had to restrain herself from pointing out her political views to her colleagues

I think her method of studying the people may have some flaws , some biases . Below would be several of them . First of all , she wasn 't really like them . These people has had different experiences and lived in a different environment unlike hers . Such factors would have made an impact on how the subjects would act as people , as workers . The author mentioned that her co-workers didn 't even ask about insurance or other possible benefits included on the job they were on and just accepted what their boss said . If the workers were people who knew about such things , they would probably ask . Then , again , even if they knew , most of them would not have time to think about such benefits as a whole because they would be too busy trying to ake ends meet anyway

Then , as one who had to experience the life of a poor worker , she was not able to live out the role very well . One , she did not have anyone who depended on her earnings - no family or siblings , unlike most of the subjects she studied . She did not feed anyone else other than herself nor did she have to consider the medical problems of other people

The author also did not trust religious organizations even when her coworkers were telling her that it would be a great help . She always refused to accept money from charities and other such organizations People in actual situations would not be refusing such help in fact they would have been the ones who would be asking for help from such organizations , whether they believed in its cause or not

She also insisted on living alone , thus pay her rent by herself . She always seemed to talk about this issue but was never really able to solve such an easy problem . Real...