5 Assignment 09

Toniann German

Soc: #9

I personally agree that Barbara Ehrenreich could have done her research from her study. I don’t feel that she necessarily had to live the life of a worker to understand how they survive off of the little wage they earn. I also feel that by giving herself limitations she didn’t not allow herself to fully understand or experience the hardships they must deal with as a result of their pay. I feel her half-gained experience was not necessary for the calculation of numbers. Most of her work could have been done threw calculation, interviews, and shadow observations.

I do however believe that it is important for her to have these experiences so that she may understand how finical hardship can have a strain on one’s life, emotionally, mentally and physically. From her study Barbara could have seen that it is nearly impossible to survive off of such minimal wage. However, when looking at it from this perspective we tend to micro manage others money and make judgments on what they spend, deciding for them what it is a necessity or not. Through her experience I feel she understood that it is easy for one to micromanage anothers money however when you are in their shoe’s you begin to realize the hardship and sacrifices one must make.

I do not agree with the parameters the she set up for her “Research”. If you are really trying to understand the way that a person on minimum wage survives then you must have no rules or parameters and let your self be vulnerable to the real and brutal world we live in. She had luxuries such as being able to use her car, where most people making such a small wage take public transit and cannot afford a car yet alone meet their basic needs. Another rule she set for herself was finding a place to live that offered security and privacy. I didn’t agree with this rule of hers because many people do not have the luxury of having a secure place, it factors in to all the other stresses in their life and is most times a direct result of the wage they are making.

I give her credit for trying but the truth behind it is (in-which she admits) that because she had a better life she was never any real fear, or danger. The things she went through were not real in a sense, because they were happening as an experiment and not as something that she really had to worry about.

Many say that you don’t know what someone is going thru until you walk a mile in their shoes. Barbara Ehrenreich set out to be different and achieve a thru life experience on how people are living on the pay they have from their low-wages jobs. In on of my other classes I had to do some readings on Ehrenreich, where she tells her story as an undercover maid which is what she also discuss in this chapter. Knowing her reading and previous works, I have to say that Ehrenreich benefits from living the real life experience. She could have gone out and interview couple people about their lives, and how they go on living pay check to pay, however, it would not have the same real life effect as for her to do the old school style journalism.
Ehrenreich benefits from putting herself thru the actual life experience many have to face on a daily basis to have a job that supports their families. She begins to set rules for herself, just in case she can’t any longer take it. Then her search for a place to live and describes how it was difficult to find a place to feel as you are home, finds herself finding places that are no safe to live in or they are no clean. Anyone living on a pay check to pay check low-wage job does not have money for a security deposit; therefore, she has to settle for what she can afford. If she were just interviewing people who live on low-wage jobs, she would not have felt the anxieties when she wasn’t able to find a place to call home. The feeling of anxiety from living in an unsafe, unclean place are not acquired from interviewing people or researching statics.
As she begins her job search, she also faces the channels of not having the proper wardrobe for an office job. An individual who lives from a low wage job would not have a closet full of business wardrobe or the privilege to go shopping for some. Therefore she has to settle to pay for her motel six room. Although Ehrenreich stuck to living her research as much as a person serving and struggle with a low wage job or on the search on, at the end of the day she could always pull out her ATM card and bail herself out of nay problem she faced. Her determination to stick to living as a low wage person gave her the insight on how many have to live paycheck to paycheck without the security of having a job or the education required for a better job. Ehrenreich benefits from sticking to her research and for the short amount of time was able to walk in their shoes.

In Nickel and Dimed Ehrenreich uses an old fashion method of journalism but going undercover as a low wageworker that “just” got off of welfare. I think there are benefits and drawbacks to this way of conducting research.

Ehrenreich particularly did not conduct her research in an authentic way because she did have some “cushions” to try to make her research a little easier. Generally a woman just coming off of public assistance would not have the luxury of having access to a vehicle. Ehrenreich was able to find affordable long term housing in motel while she looked for a place to live which seemed to be standard for people with low income in Portland Maine where she decided to conduct some of her research. Maine was a location that she chose in order to conduct her research in a area that was very “white” in order to avoid the pressures of being in a low wage work force with other races that would be typical workers in the service industries. Maine was so white that this would not be an issue. She discovers that this is a similar place as some of the other locations that she has been conducting her research. Similar jobs to attain with similar wages for the unskilled woman.

Ehrenreich was able to get jobs as a dietary aide and also as a maid without having any experience in these fields. She is able to meet people/Co Workers at these jobs and is able to learn a different perspective of some of the other struggles these individuals face such as limited funds for childcare or the uneasiness of having to leave your child with someone that you do not fully trust. Also, the struggles of not being able to take a day off because your job will not be secured if you miss a day of work. Being able to have an insider’s perspective of her co-workers was the real benefit of putting herself in this position to conduct this research.

I do partially agree that Ehrenreich did not need to leave her home to fully conduct this research. I think that she could have gotten testimony from different people of all races and from a few different age groups in order to get some stories of what it is like to live as a low wage worker. Besides the benefit of meeting the people she worked with and knowing their stories, I feel like Ehrenreich being a white woman in America who is educated has a slight upper hand compared to others that are living below the poverty line without even realizing it.

The benefit author Barbara Ehrenreich obtains as described in her book Nickel and Dimed is not one that is measured by charts and graphs, but by experiencing the relationship and struggle people have with low wage earnings and how they maintain their everyday lives. In her book, Ehrenreich decides to shed her current “work life” as a writer and scholar, and become one of the low wage working class. The author sets to obtain low paying jobs with little to no experience and obtain housing throughout her experiment. She has also set some guidelines for herself in which she strips down her skills and experience, she must take the highest paying low wage jobs and take the cheapest rent option when seeking where to live. Ehrenreich states that she does go into this experiment with some advantage, but she is not dismissing the disadvantages the majority of low wage workers in America experience. While she provides herself some necessities such as a car and not subjecting herself to homelessness or hunger, her journey to experience life as a low wage earner in this society presents itself to be a difficult one.

In the second chapter Scrubbing in Maine, Ehrenreich decides to conduct her experiment in an environment where her “whiteness” is common among the masses. She, who is a white woman, argues that she chooses this environment so that she can get into the low wage workforce with very little involvement of race and prejudices. She stays at a motel while she secures employment and simultaneously tries to find a place to live. She obtains two jobs in Maine; one as a dietary aide in a nursing home on weekends and one as a house cleaner at a home cleaning service. She also obtains housing that can be sustained with her earning wage, but we quickly discover that making ends meet becomes a challenge. We also quickly discover that her relationship to work is one that subjects her to adjust things such as what she eats, her health and how she relates with her co-workers. It is an environment that ultimately tells the tale of how low wage earnings and high stress jobs do not fulfill even the basics of living everyday life.

I truly believe that the goal of Ehrenreich immersing herself into this experiment is one that was necessary. While we can easily use numbers and others stories to measure results easily, the overall experience she demonstrates in the pieces shows the human connection along with the difficulties and sacrifices one has to go through on a day to day when earning low wages. It is within those experiences that we tend to discover the relationship one has to work and life. Where human beings struggle to make ends meet in a society that asks so much in return as far as wages are concerned, it is proof positive that the value one equates to the level of work one does is not balanced in any way.

Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich is the research she decides to do about the hardship people in American go through because of low wages. Her curiosity lead to do this research by incorporating herself in the lives and circumstances must people in America go through every day. Her family recommended she do the research without living throw it, the way people making low wages do. Her family at first weren’t too keen on her decision but she made her choice.

The day she started her research she made some rules for safety reasons she would have a car either her own or a rental and she would have some extra money for the beginning of her research. She went into this experiment with some privileges most people having a low-income job don’t have. She started job hunting but rapidly understood that in order to get a job it is necessary to have a place to live an address to write down on the applications. Similarly, she realized that she was looking for jobs in a predominantly black area where she stood out. This is when Ehrenreich chooses to do her research in Maine because is predominantly white and she would fit in.

This experience gave her the chance to see firsthand the struggles low income families go thought to survive in this country. Ehrenreich was able to see how difficult it is to find a livable space making minimal wage. She saw how some people had to struggle and basically live like animals because they can’t afford better living conditions. Correspondingly she experienced how many people get sick or injured but continue to work though it because either can’t afford to go to the hospital or can miss a day’s work because of fear of losing that precious job.  This gave her the opportunity to feel the frustration must of us go through with our employers, when they choose the job at hand instead of our health or sometimes safety.

Certainly, if Ehrenreich hadn’t made the decision to experience the life of low income families first hand and follow her family’s advice, this research would not have been the same. Even though she had the privilege of knowing the struggles she was going though were temporary and that if she was going hungry she would buy something to eat, she really tried to stick though the struggles like many of her coworkers. This made her research feel more authentic to her.

When reading the chapters, Enrenreich realizes that people who work two or more jobs and are in poverty cannot afford food or shelter.  She cant imagine how people who work $8.00 an hour or less can survive so she wants to find out how. She starts by telling us what she is going to do and how she is going to do it. She cant use any of her education skills, she will take the highest paying job and make it her best to keep it and find the most accommodating place to live. She looks for a place to live and settling on a $500 a month efficiency apartment, and this is the start of her low-wage life, taking place in Key West Florida. The struggles of applying for jobs and no one calls you back until eventually, she finds a waitressing position. She explains how she works from 2:00 in the evening to 10.00 at night for $2.43 an hour plus tips. She tells us how wages are too low and rent is too high. She was giving another job as a housekeeper and a dietary aid on the weekends. She learns about different types of medications for pain and how she basically ended up feeding an entire alzhiemers ward all by herself. She tells us about the conditions and how sad it is to see.  This was an experiment that she will never forget, and if she didn’t take the chance to experience it she would of never know how it is like for people that are less fortunate. Who don’t have the same access too things as she does. My own personal opinion I believe that a single mother can survive without welfare. Enrenreich realizes that poor are poor and there is almost no escape from it. She learns that people with low or no education, have fewer opportunties, low-wage workers have few options and that is it hard of people to change their lives.

Barbara Ehrenreich sought to write about the living conditions of individuals receiving low job wages. As a journalist, she used the discipline of an Anthropological approach towards her research as an ethnographer. Contrary to the popular opinion of her family, she believed she had to witness firsthand the effects of low wages. Through her study, she obtained insight on actual low waged work and lived a lifestyle within her current means.

She homes in on the hardship of finding a permanent residence, and the notion of a vicious cycle—you can’t work without an address, but you can’t have an address without a job. This forces her to live in a motel paying fifty-nine dollars a day. She notes constant moving is common among many of those living in poverty. While searching for a permanent residence she instantly notices the conditions of her available options as depressive. She ends up finding a place that requires a security deposit and in many instances, someone seeking a permanent residence while working a low waged job might not have that at their disposal.

While job hunting she filled out several job applications for service work like hotels and supermarkets; no one called. Ehrenreich obtained insight of the never ending revolving door of turnovers associated with low waged jobs. The abundance of jobs advertised does not reflect the measurement of availability. She found herself very limited to the job market. Many jobs seem to be out of her reach because of the attire it requires. She notes someone with a low waged job would not be able to afford office clothes for any clerical position. She is asked to take a prerequisite exam prior to employment to measure her reading and English speaking skills, information an interview would have missed.  She is given a job as a dietary aid for people who suffer from Alzheimer’s. Her first day on the job was filled with labor-intensive manual backbreaking work of cleaning. She mentions the humiliating conditions of this job may not be seen as such to someone who saw this as their norm.

Barbara Ehrenreich experiences as ethnographer gave her insight on the millions of women in the labor market and their survival on the bare minimum, as a means for her writing. Through her migration over the past few months, she notes the lack of affordable housing was a common denominator. Luckily the struggle for her was only temporary.

In the reading Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich she talks about people with low income and their struggle for survival or to make it. Ehrenreich explains how she was very curious to know how low income people did it to maintain themselves and their needs, her goal was to try to see their sufferings and struggles and hopefully understanding them better. By Ehrenreich doing her journalism the old fashioned way she was able to put herself through that experience. Although through her course Ehrenreich had some privileges to help her live a “low income” life in a much more comfortable way than the rest. But the more time she spend in that life she was able to feel and see how difficult it is; hard to find a job, to get paid well, to afford housing, food and necessities. A lot of learning happened during the course of this experiment, going through these struggles and seeing how with each one she was able to slightly better herself and her outcomes but she had to work really hard for that. These struggles make people stronger and helped her see the mistreatment that some management has against workers or just how inattentive they are to their workers. She was no longer the management but this time she was the worker herself, seeing and feeling the mistreatments and the need for better management.

As the story progressed, she found herself looking outside of that community Key West to look for better opportunities elsewhere but in low income communities still. By doing that she noticed that it was almost the same as it was back at Key west, she got a low paying job which the boss did not really care about the workers and their health, she had no health insurance and it was tough paying for a hotel room every night so she had to go in search of a place she could afford. Ehrenreich also pointed out how she always ended up working more hours that she did not even get paid for because her job will take longer to achieve. At the end of chapter two, she points out how these women could get injured at their job, like house maids, and the boss will just tell them that they will be okay. No type of health check provided for them, which is unfair because they could lose a job if they get sick and unable to do the task required to maintain the job.

In Barbara Ehrenreich  introduction of her book, Nickel and Dimed, (2001:8)  she notes that certain family members told her she could complete her research without ever leaving her study.  They said that she could get an entry level job and charge herself for room and board, gas and add it up for the month. She goes on to elaborate on how much rent cost and the wages that she would make but she wanted to learn firsthand what it was like and how people survived. She had questions she needed answers to for example the one she used the single mother being able to live without welfare.

In chapter two of her book she explained why she choose to move to Maine and she said she choose it because of its whiteness. When I read that part I immediately went oh lord here come a trump supporter but She went on to say that everyone there was white the housekeepers, the cabdrivers. So it made sense that this would be a town with a poor white people. She then described her hotel that she was staying in which was pretty interesting. Motel 6 where she paid $59 a night next to a gas station, auto store and a shopping mart. She seemed happy to start her journey she said other than fugitives and refugees, how many people ever get to blow off all past relationships and routines, leave those mounds of unanswered mail and voice-mail messages, and start all over, with just a driver’s license and a Social Security card. (Ehrenreich34) which is very interesting a lot of poor people do this all the time. They leave their homes and family to find a better job so that their family can have a better life. I did this at 14 years of age where I left Jamaica to come to New York for a better education.

Ehrenreich went on to talk about her apartment searching and how she couldn’t get an apartment without a job and couldn’t get a job without an address which was funny. Because both go hand in hand and what she did in order to get one how she decided to use the pay phone and the teenagers as her receptionist and decided she would look both a job and an apartment at the same time. She talked about prices and how she couldn’t afford certain apartment so she decided to share an apartment and one the apartments she looked at the guy was sleep in the kitchen. I am sorry I don’t care how cheaper this apartment was I would not live somewhere where there’s a person sleeping in the kitchen and her question was how do I cook and the landlord response was he doesn’t sleep all the time  in my head I said girl run but apparently she really needed somewhere to stay.

Her job interviews was even more interesting , she couldn’t get a clerical job because of limited wardrobe, she couldn’t become waitress because tourist season was ending so no one was hiring.so she looked into  warehouse and nursing homework, manufacturing, and a position called “general helper( Ehrenreich37). She sounded like any typical person looking for a job she went through a bunch of random jobs, sent her application everywhere. Then finally she gets a job as a dietary aide, she said a dietary aide sounds important and technical. (Ehrenreich38) but then she realized what the job entails cleaning and handling dish washer.

All her experiences that she described in her book gave her a greater understanding to what life is really like when you’re poor and have a low wage job trying to make ends meet. Her going out and job hunting, meeting different people gave her the chance to see, live and breathe the struggles of others so she understands and can now give a great account of what it is like. And it gave her information to write her book and even though this is a temporary situation for her to get the answers she set out to get as a journalist but it’s an everyday struggle for us who have to work for low wage and try to survive. If she did not leave and listen to her family she wouldn’t have gotten the experience she did.

When Barbara Ehrenreich set out to write a book on how people are living on the pay that they get from low-wage jobs, she agreed to do her journalism as an ethnographer and to actually work doing the low-wage jobs and live the lifestyles that accompany them. Her family suggested that she just do the theoretical calculations and live off of a low-wage salary but she decided not to do this and viewed her task as a scientist, who sooner or later must surround themselves with their subjects in their natural habitats (Ehrenreich, p.9).  Originally, I thought that maybe Ehrenreich could just travel the country and interview numerous different people who worked in low-wage jobs and report on their experiences, but as I began reading her account of working in Maine, I realized the richness that her book would have lacked.

First, she does not immediately delve in by describing her experience at work. She notes that having to suddenly be in a new place is common for many living in poverty, so she begins by reporting on her search for housing.  The search proves a tough one, as she must pay $59 per day in the motel in which she is staying while she looks for something more permanent (Ehrenreich, p.36).  The places she views are small and dingy, although they do not seem unsafe.  The one she chooses does require a security deposit, which someone who works low-wage jobs and is looking for a new one, may not have (Ehrenreich, p.36).

On to her job search, she reports that clerical jobs were not an option, as she does not have the proper wardrobe, and the same may go for someone who only works low-wage jobs (Ehrenreich, p. 36). She also must take pre-employment tests, requiring that she can read and speak English (Ehrenreich, p.37).  This information may not have gotten passed along had she chosen to only interview people.  Finally, she is offered one job that will actually charge her $.65 per hour for two weeks if she fails to come to work one day (Ehrenreich, p.38).  For Ehrenreich working only one month there, this may not pose a problem, but for someone with children, poor health, or unreliable transportation, not being able to make it to work for every single shift is a stark reality.

Once she begins working, Ehrenreich describes her first day as a dietary aid in a residential home for people with Alzheimer’s. The day is full of hard work, manual labor, and what did not seem to be a humiliating experience of having milk thrown at her (Ehrenreich, p.41).  Ehrenreich takes this to be a hazing for her first day, but someone who has only worked in low-wage jobs where being looked down upon by those they are serving, may have felt differently.  At her job as a Merry Maid, she describes her not-so-merry skin condition that requires a trip to the doctor (Ehrenreich, p.51).  Paying for a doctor’s visit for someone without health insurance can mean a huge financial set back, especially if they are required to miss a day of work, losing $.65 on the hour for the next two weeks.

Ehrenreich could not have written her book with the accounts of surviving on low-wage jobs the way that she did, had she not experienced it herself. I also appreciate that she recognizes the fact that she has many advantages over other low-wage workers-her race, education, health, and of course the fact that this is only a temporary experiment for her (Ehrenreich, p.12).  For her co-workers as well as millions of other Americans, living off of low incomes is a daily reality.