Whatcha Readin'? Nickel and Dimed (On Not Getting By in America) by Barbara Ehrenreich
by Lah-May
When I first heard about Barbara Ehrenreich’s book, Nickel and Dimed (On Not Getting By in America) I knew reading it would would arouse in me a righteous anger. Besides being a writer, Ehrenreich also holds a Ph.D. in biology. She felt it would take a scientific approach—off the bench and into the chaos—to learn how 30 percent of American workers survive on $8 or less an hour.
Ehrenreich spent three months learning first hand what it’s like trying to live on low-wage employment—from $2.43 an hour plus tips waitressing (which for Ehrenreich amounted to about $5.15 an hour) to $7.00 an hour retailing at Wal-Mart. As one of the working-poor, she waitressed in Florida, cleaned houses in Maine, and retailed in Minnesota. In two locations she worked a second job (as many of her co-workers did), knowing one alone would barely make ends meet and certainly would not cover any extraordinary expenses—car repair or illness. She struggled (and often failed) to find housing close enough so as not to put too much strain on her wreck of a car. She tried to buy somewhat nutritious food, but often had to settle for fast convenient junk food. She experienced what it feels like to be used and abused for the sake of the bottom line.
Ehrenreich also shared the situations of others. One woman, unable to find affordable housing, slept in her car in the parking lot of a shopping center and then showered at a co-worker’s place. Another woman, despite a potential back injury, continued to clean for the maid service company which employed her—including vacuuming with a backpack mounted vacuum—because management encouraged the workers to "work through it" [the pain]. Ehrenreich’s final stint at Wal-Mart perhaps gave her the greatest distaste for low-wage employment—the mundane work, the lack of overtime pay, and the megacorporation "culture." She found Wal-Mart’s "Respect for the individual" motto to be contradictory to its practice of cultivating a servile and indentured work force.
In all cases, she discerned there was an underlying modus operandi—from drug-testing, to laws giving permission for management to search purses, to "reaming out" employees by managers—which seemed to be designed to keep the self-esteem of employees at a low level, perhaps so that they would see themselves as not deserving of anything better in life.
Ehrenreich writes that despite middle and upper class societies’ disdainful views of the working poor, she feels a more appropriate emotion should be shame—"shame at our own dependency, in this case on the underpaid labor of others." She adds, "The working poor are in fact the major philanthropists of our society. They neglect their own children so that the children of others will be cared for; they live in substandard housing so that other homes will be shiny and perfect; they endure privation so that inflation will be low and stock prices high. To be a member of the working poor is to be an anonymous donor, a nameless benefactor to everyone else."
I myself live in an intentional spiritual community with visionary leadership that seeks to meet the physical, the mindal, and the spiritual needs of others. I learned from the fulcrum of our beliefs, The URANTIA Book, that Jesus often quoted, with approval, an old Hebrew saying: "He who will not work shall not eat." But what Ehrenreich’s book confirms is that in today’s Western culture, even those who work, and work hard, cannot eat well, cannot afford decent housing, cannot support their families well, and constantly worry about any unforeseen circumstances that may result in homelessness.
I am not against corporations, but I am against greedy government and corporate officials, the exploitation of human beings, and the plundering of the planet’s natural resources. I am not against hard work, but I am against unfulfilled lives, work-related injuries, lack of education, unfair distribution of wealth, and disregard of the individual’s God-given destiny and development of talents.
A higher reality can manifest, but lower realities, such as greed and selfishness, must first be addressed. Lifestyles of the rich and famous and the habits of the powerful conglomerates should not be awed, but should be corrected—for they not only put a burden on the lower strata of societies and the sustainability of the planet, they also reflect serious soul issues which collectively prevent the actualization of a moral and conscientious society and individually inhibit soul ascension.
Following the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill adopting Nickel and Dimed as a reading for all incoming students in 2003 (a "relatively tame selection" as opposed to the previous year’s selections from the Koran), a group of conservative UNC-CH students, calling themselves the Committee for a Better Carolina, denounced Nickel and Dimed as a "classic Marxist rant" and a work of "intellectual pornography with no redeeming characteristics." The "Committee has charged Ehrenreich with being a Marxist, a socialist, an atheist, and a dedicated enemy of the American family. She has even been called the Antichrist of North Carolina on some radio programs.
Source: "The AntiChrist of North Carolina"
Barbara Ehrenreich, The Progressive