Nickel and Dimed vs Scratch Beginnings

I just finished reading Barbara Ehrenreich's Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America. In this book Ehrenreich sets out to prove that an unskilled laborer cannot get by in America. The biggest problem I had with Nickel and Dimed was that the author set herself up for failure from the beginning. She set up three 'experiments' in Key West, Maine, and Minnesota each lasting one month. Her rules were that she would not live in a shelter, she would set herself up with $1500.00 in seed money and she would rent a car with her credit card in each town.

In Key West she landed a waitressing job with housing a 40 minute drive away. She had to live 40 minutes away so she could find affordable housing. I get that, but has the woman never heard of roommates? When she was hired for her job she was told she needed two pairs of khaki pants. Did she go to Salvation Army? Did she go to Walmart or Kmart? No, she went to a department store and bought $60.00 worth of Dockers. To her credit, she did admit this was a mistake later on in the book. She ends up walking out and quitting one night because her waitressing job is more than she can handle. It must be nice to just play at being poor.

In Maine she got a job with a cleaning service @ $6.65 per hour. She complained that the franchise owner was charging $25.00 per hour per person. She fails to take into consideration that the franchise is paying for cars, gas, cleaning supplies, payroll taxes, and insurance. She states that an independent maid makes $15.00 per hour. Barb is having to work as a maid 5 days per week as a maid, and weekends at a nursing home. Here's an crazy idea--Find an apartment with a roommate to share living expenses, and continue working those two jobs until she has enough saved up to be an independent maid.

In Minnesota Ehrenreich is hired at two places--Walmart at $6.25 per hour and Menard's at $10.00 per hour. Inexplicably, she takes the Walmart job. Why would she take a job at nearly $4.00 less per hour? And, seriously, it's not a well-kept secret that Walmart is a crummy place to work.  It kills me the way she constantly pities her coworkers for working the jobs they do. She thinks they must be the most down trodden people on the face of the earth to put up with such demeaning work. Well guess what? My husband does the type of work she poo-poos and he really enjoys his work. Could it be that he and millions more like him have something she's not familiar with called a work ethic?

Adam Shepard was required to read Nickel and Dimed in college. He didn't agree with the premise of the book so he set out to do his own little experiment. After graduation from college Shepard decided to pick a random city and start over with the clothes on his back and $25.00. His goals were to, within one year, own a car and live in a furnished apartment and have savings.   He picked Charleston, SC. He took the train to North Charleston, moved into the Crisis Ministries homeless shelter, and set out to find a job. He succeeded all of his goals in less than 6 months. Shepard details his story in Scratch Beginnings: Me, $25, and the Search for the American Dream. I will admit that Shepard's story is a bit unrealistic. He had several things going for him--no children, youth, good health, no substance abuse problems or criminal record.

I suspect the truth lies somewhere between these to books. I do feel like Barbara Ehrenreich dabbled at being poor while Adam Shepard really threw himself into his project. I also enjoyed the optimism in Shepard's book. Ehrenreich's book is very pessimistic and her lame attempts a humor often fall flat.

This post is already dragging on too long, so tomorrow I will share our story.

Wendy

Wendy

Comments

[melissa]

i've read nickel and dimed, but i'll have to get scratch beginnings out of the library. sounds like a good balance!

[Ron F.]

Barbara Ehrenreich did not set herself up for failure. She was not trying to do what Adam Shepard did. Ehrenreich only spent one month at three menial jobs in three separate states in order to highlight the plight of the working poor to stay afloat financially. She was not trying to lift herself out of poverty like Adam Shepard. That was not her goal. Adam Shepard's experiment takes place in an entirely different world from that of the working poor that Ehrenreich covered. Shepard is among homeless people in a shelter. Ehrenreich is not concerened about living as cheaply as possible, as Shepard is. That is because her experiment is to highlight what life experience is like for the working poor. Shepard is the one who is concerened about living as cheaply as possible in order to save as much money as possible. Shepard is a capitalist. Ehrenreich is a socialist. That is why Shepard makes, as you do as well, a gross error in comparing his experiment to Ehrenreich's experiment. Finally, at no point in her book does Ehrenreich state that social immobility is impossible. She even talks about her father lifing her family up from poverty to become an upper middle class family. At no point in her book does Ehrenreich state that the working poor are doomed to eternal failure. She gives plenty of examples of upward and downward social mobility. Also, as a 60-year-old upper middle class woman in her experiment, you should be able to understand why she paints a bleaker situation that an idealistic, cocky young man like Adam Shepard. I believe that the reason you and Adam Shepard misunderstand her work is your opposition to her socialist views. You and Adam Shepard both need to give her book a second read and try to hear her out completely. She has important and valid points to make, as does Adam Shepard.

[Sarah]

I read the book (Ehrenreich) and found it really informative and poignant (and depressing) .
I had 3 problems though:1. I felt that after Key West she became very hard and had such a bad attitude that their was no way she could succeed from then on.
2. I thought that alot of the things that she found degrading were not degrading at all. When you look for a problem it is easy tofind one. I do not believe drug testing is degrading, I really don't. When I was in highschool my full class was drug tested all the time. It was annoying but it prevented most kids from doing drugs. Also management is their for a purpose, your not supposed to like them. Get over it.
3. She irritatingly gave no suggestions to how to fix this problem.

overall this book was great and I highly recommend it. I am curious to read Shepard's book. Person above me calm down, he is young and she basically shattered his hopes for the future and his belief in America, how does that make him cocky? Because he thrived?