Nickel & Dimed

After reading Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich, I have learned from her experience a new perspective for minimum wage workers. I think Ehrenreich's main point for putting herself in others shoes, concludes in the understanding of how the lower class lives. She wanted to tell America about her surprised findings at how workers were treated and about their home life. Ehrenreich intended this book to be for middle class citizens, like herself, to understand a different way of life and have respect for it. Nickel and Dimed had many different, positive and negatives responses. I feel as if Ehrenreich's main point of writing Nickel and Dimed was hit from many types of citizens from all classes and gave American's the knowledge to stand up for what is right. This main point it applicable to my practice as a  preservice teacher because it taught me the experience that some of my students parents may be going through. It has also taught me to be less judgmental because you never know how hard someone is working and what they have to do to get by.


I really like how Nickel and Dimed gave the reader discussion questions at the end of the book. This is great for book clubs! The discussion question that stood out to me the most was number 17. It asked, "After reading Nickel and Dimed, do you think that having a job-any job- is better than no job at all? Did this book make you feel angry? Better informed? Relived that someone has finally described your experience? Galvanized to do something"? I agree that having a job is better than no job at all because it gives people something to do with their lives and a way to earn money for their hard work. This book did not make me feel angry and did not make me feel better informed. I agreed with most of the topics Ehrenreich argued, but I feel as if I do not feel better informed because I have experience in a minimum wage job. Also, from my Sociology class I took last semester at USF, I learned a lot about the lower class and problems within that community. I was well informed of what her experience would be like before reading Nickel and Dimed. At first I was upset about how she talked about the stereotypes, but then I realized from her experiences the stereotypes are true. These are the same stereotypes I learned in my Sociology class and my professor always talked about how negative and horrible it is to believe these stereotypes, but in class she showed us evidence that they were true. An example of what type of stereotype I am talking about is that poor people in America eat a lot of fast food. From my sociology class I learned that was true because the environment that surrounds impoverished areas include many fast food restaurants. In Nickel and Dimed, Ehrenreich discussed eating out at fast food restaurants because its what she could afford and second because she did not have time during her work day to eat anywhere else. Nickel and Dimed was a good eye opener for personal experiences of the working class.