Nickel and Dimed Reflection

Ehrenreich’s personal experience into the world of the living poor introduces a rarely seen world. Her insight into the living poor provides invaluable information that a large majority of the United States has rarely seen or experienced. Her methods, which can be considered courageous in comparison to what most people would attempt, could easily be improved.

Her experience into the world of the living poor introduces an entirely unseen world in the American economy. As a consumer, we witness many of the workers who earn minimum wage, and while their private lives are talked about, Ehrenreich’s first-person view introduces an entirely different view in comparison with the many statistics about the poor’s lack of income. Furthermore, her success proves that with hard work and dedication, everyone has the potential to succeed. Her overall argument in support for the living poor is increased as a result of experience. Most individuals will never experience the life of the living poor; therefore, Ehrenreich’s account presents the issue of poverty into a whole new social class. As for myself, I truly believe that the majority of the citizens living in Clemmons, North Carolina, will never truly understand the full extent of the working poor. The restaurants and stores in the surrounding area are usually inhabited by middle class families. Even before she began her journey, I viewed the life of poverty as a difficult and emotionally stressful life. Her methods, however, can be improved and easily corrected to trace the steps needed to succeed, instead of fail, the life of the working poor.

When Ehrenreich entered the workforce, her main purpose was to express her own personal view of the living poor. As a reader, I could predict that entering the minimum wage workforce after living many years as a wealthy successful individual would prove to be an extremely challenging task. First, she entered the workforce as an individual alienating herself from both friends and family. Had she used the help from friends, her experiment undoubtedly would not have succeeded. The friend factor, however, can not be ignored to affect the life of the poor. This unchangeable factor, nonetheless, should have been researched by a simple survey of the true living poor. She also stressed throughout the entirety of the book the difficulty to pay a monthly rent. Upon reading the rent issue for the third time, any reader should easily be able to devise a way to fix the problem: splitting the mortgage. I believe she stressed rent as a difficulty too many times; eventually most readers picked up on the apparent solution.

Ehrenreich blatantly ignores another issue. The best method for creating friendship and