Category: Nickel and Dimed

Throughout this class, I have learned that Urban Studies has a lot to do with community. In a community, the general focus is the ties that bind people together and tear them apart. I genuinely enjoyed chapters six through nine in the book but I would like to specifically focus on chapters six and eight having to do with community and the way people are tied together within those communities. I found Local Hero, The Milagro Beanfield War, and Nickel and Dimed gave me a strong sense of community while reviewing the content. I intend to examine how the materials reviewed in class tie into the chapters I enjoyed so much. The three pieces I would like to review are joined by community, not only community in terms of physical location but a community in terms of ethnic and religious backgrounds.

Chapter six of the text revolves around rural-urban typologies are limited tools for understanding the shift from rural-preindustrial to urban-industrial life. The typology comes out of a nineteenth-century view of one-way thinking. It cannot account for significant differences within preindustrial communities or industrial societies. Although the chapter focuses on Europe, this was not the case for most of the world. Instinctively, we may not feel that the sense of community is the same all over the world. I am sure life in a tribal village and medieval London would be somewhat different. Of course, there are differences between everyday life in a 3rd world area and a metropolis. The effects of industrialization, cultural values, and other variables have to be carefully unscrambled when assessing the rural to urban shift within societies. Chapter six has a basic theme that revolves around theorists fundamentally disagreeing on the nature of urbanization.

Chapter six also introduces the topic of the community. Phillips states, “like love, truth, and other abstract concepts, the community has no agreed-on meaning. In the discipline of sociology alone, there are at least 90 definitions of the word (p.167).” I have learned that in Urban Studies, the community is a sense of belonging, a “we-ness” that typifies many traditional communities. Some groups share both a physical territory and a cohesive society existence, a traditional community. However, many groups called communities today are not bound by plots of land. For instance, a close-knit ethnic or religious community could be widely dispersed. Yet its members share a culture and origins that bind them. Those previous definitions are what I believe tie the class materials into this chapter. The three pieces I would like to review are joined by community; whether it is ethnic, religious, or physical.

Chapter eight has to do with making connections and social networks. For the most part, people are not isolated. Instead, they belong to communities and social networks. Analyzing these networks is another approach to studying how contemporary people maintain a sense of connection (Phillips, 2010, p251). The network has to do with the proportion of actual connections among network members compared with the possible number of connections among actual members. The ties of networking are strong and come from friendships, emotion, acquaintanceship, and frequent contact. Aside from networks, there is a growing recognition that members of a global community share common concerns, possibly a common fate. I find this chapter relates to the three pieces I would like to review in the way that not all characters in the pieces were not only a community but a strong network of individuals.

Barbara Ehrenreich’s book Nickel and Dimed fits into chapter eight. It explores the depressing life of minimum-wage workers and their struggles to sustain an existence. Ehrenreich’s goal is to shire the light on American poverty and its endless cycle of paycheck to paycheck. The premise of the book is to understand how hundreds and thousands of people live at the poverty level and how there is a realization that this way of life very much exists. There are many people who refuse to take government handouts and do the best they can to get by.

Ehrenreich’s technique is solid in that she places herself in the middle of the experiment by working multiple minimum wage jobs in three different cities. She would go to a town and look for a job, which was never as easy as one would think. After obtaining a job, she would look for housing within her very small budget; and for one month attempts to live off her minimum wage job. The book basically covers clinical trials and studies of Ehrenreich’s experiences mixed with a real human element. The human aspect is what I truly enjoyed about this book and is what ties into chapters six and eight of our text.

While Ehrenreich was working these interesting minimum wage jobs, she would interview her co-workers. She learned their backstories and how they were able to survive on minimum wage. She learned the most human aspect from her experiment; they survived by forming a network and creating their own community. Each job she held had similar people that survived in the same way, by creating their own communities. They would room with each other where they could, they would watch each other’s children, and cheer each other on. The people she encountered did not identify as “residents” as members of low-status ZIP codes. These places may be instrumental in forging a new sense of we-ness among people of different ages, backgrounds status positions, and tastes (Phillips, 2010, p250). To some, these “communities” meet the challenge: they guarantee freedom and provide intimacy; they are placeless, faceless and interconnective communities.

Another piece we reviewed in class was a movie that revolved around the theme of community. Local Hero is a movie that is set in the cute small town of Ferness. The town is geographically and economically isolated. It consists of a small row of homes, a pub, a tiny hotel, one phone booth, and a ton of people that value the idea of community. The people of Ferness are good, kind people. Fishermen making a living from the sea and everyone else makes a living where they can, doubling up on jobs if necessary. The people appear odd at first but at the layers are pulled back you see that they are a true community.

An oil company sets out to buy the tiny scenic town on the bay in Scotland where they intend to build an oil refinery. The oil company sends Mac to buy the land. Mac meets Gordon, the hotel owner, who is also the accountant, and the bartender. Mac makes it known that he intends to buy the town to build a refinery. Gordon suggests Mac wander around the town and get to know the place that he intends to buy. While Mac is away, Gordon uses the strong network the town has built and got the word out regarding the possible sale of the town. The townspeople are thrilled at the chance to sell their land and become instant millionaires, which makes Mac a very popular guy within the town.

As the deal nears an end, the locals hold a ceilidh (kay-lay) to meet and talk about the deal. The entire town shows up to get drunk and discuss how they will spend their millions on Maseratis and Ferraris. Everyone has a great time but Mac. Mac has grown to love the town and its people. The ceilidh only solidifies the sense of community that Mac wants in his life. The town was bought but an observatory and a marine preserve were built as to not ruin the bay. While that was not the original intent, the sense of community was strong and swayed the young businessman’s mind. At the end of movie, Mac says, “But I can go back, year after year, and I do. With each viewing, the simple joy of life at Ferness, and the preciousness of that particular time and place becomes more and more dear (Forsyth).”

The movie tied into not only community-based on territory but community based on common culture. Chapter eight discusses how researchers think that a ZIP code is the single most important bit of information about people all over the world. A ZIP code identifies us as birds of a feather: members of residential communities where neighbors share preferences for food, cars, and presidential candidates. Ferness was not concerned with communities based solely on the sharing of space. Rather, they were focused on communities rooted in social relationships. As for communities with a common culture, they are not bound by a plot of land. The people of Ferness are members that share a culture and origins that bind them and set them apart from others in a society.

The final piece I would like to use from class is The Milagro Beanfield War which is a film that demonstrates the lengths a community will go to help each other. The movie opens with a spirit dancing around in the night playing music. The spirits within the town show up throughout the movie almost as if they are keeping the community of Milagro focused on their roots. The basis of the movie follows Joe, a poor man that lives in the rundown town of Milagro, New Mexico. The predominantly Hispanic town had seen better days back when it was a thriving farm community. The Devine Company which is a development company of elites comes in and the locals have a difficult time in regard to their water and property rights. The Devine Company is in the process of constructing a luxury resort that will attract wealthier people that will allow for tax rate increases; the rates will be too high for the people of Milagro to continue living in their town.

Joe, who was down on his luck inadvertently diverts water from an irrigation ditch owned by the Devine Company to irrigate his own bean field. Once word spreads that Joe is irrigating his bean field, a “war” begins between the Milagro community and the developers of the Devine Company. The simple act ultimately unifies the people of Milagro into an army fighting to preserve the valley and their whimsical way of life.

Milagro means miracle in Spanish and it looked like the town needed one. Joe seemed like he was going to give up but a local business owner, Ruby helped push Joe to carry on. Ruby felt something was wrong and used the network built within the community to mobilize the town. The Devine Company were the villains of this story and they overplayed their hand. The film ends with the Milagro community temporarily defeating the Devine Company. The final scene is the members of the community picking beans from Joe’s field while developers hear the word that their project has been postponed. Of course, the spirits come back to help celebrate the win over the developers and keep the whimsy of Milagro alive.

The Milagro Beanfield War was my favorite piece in regards to networking and community. Most citizens were farmers. Although agriculturists, they preferred to live in the town, walk their fields, and spend any leisure time talking to the people within their community which is the definition of a communal way of life (Phillips, 2010, p170).

What lies within the depths of a minimum wage job? In this investigative journal, A Nickle and Dimed, our protagonist and author Barbara Ehrenreich explores the worst when it comes to low-wage jobs in America in the late 1900s and early 2000s. In the book she goes undercover through different jobs across the country and explains the complications as well as the people she comes across in a low-class setting. In this report we will look at a brief summary of Barbara’s journey, the theme of labor, and the theme of shame and unity.

In the book Barbara explores and experiences the hardships of low-class low income Americans. Barbara starts her journey near her home in Key West, Florida she attempts to find a place to live so she finds a trailer home getting a job as a waitress and as a hotel maid as one job was not enough for rent. Failing the first month of her investigation Barbra moves onto the next city Portland, Maine getting a job at a nursing home and with The Maids, other jobs prove to be physically and mentally exhausting. Lastly, she travels to Minnesota getting a job at Wal-Mart. At the end of each city she tells trustworthy coworkers about her reasons for finding these jobs and shockingly the coworkers show no shock.

In the story the theme of labor is linked to pain. Barbra portrays low wage labor as hard and unbearable, often hurting the workers rather than helping them. In chapter 1 page 22 Barbara concludes that ”Cooks want to prepare tasty meals, servers want to serve them graciously, but managers are there for only one reason — to make sure that money is made for some theoretical entity, the corporation, which exists far away in Chicago or New York, if a corporation can be said to have a physical existence at all.” At Hearthside Barbara witnesses the complete disconnect between workers and the higher ups. It appears to her the farther you climb the ladder the more disconnected you become with your employees, caring more about making money than the well being of the employees. Furthermore, In chapter 3 page 193 Barbara states ”The first thing I discovered is that no job, no matter how lowly, is truly ‘unskilled’.” By the end of her journey Barbra realizes that any job no matter how little dignity or how low the pay always requires some skill, whether it be hands on experience or, with more relevance to the theme, the ability to withstand hardships. In her experiences Barbara recognizes how important it is to be able to withstand pressure and pain as you only truly have your own back.

Tying in to the theme of pain, Barbara shows how low-wage workers are made to feel both invisible and shameful. In page 59 Barbara states “What these tests tell employers about potential employees is hard to imagine, since the “right” answers should be obvious to anyone who has ever encountered the principle of hierarchy and subordination.” Barbara sees that the lack of right or wrong answers is a sham. The survey she took at the job fair can be seen as a way to keep employees in their place below the bosses. Additionally on page 163 while working at Wal-Mart Barbara shares an experience with one of her coworkers: “Today seems embarrassed when she sees me: ‘I probably shouldn’t have done this and you’re going to think it’s really silly…’ but she’s brought me a sandwich for lunch. This is because I’d told her I was living in a motel almost entirely on fast food, and she felt sorry for me. Now I’m embarrassed, and beyond that overwhelmed to discover a covert stream of generosity running counter to the dominant corporate miserliness.” In this moment Barbra realizes that the low-class does not care much for economic stability, at the state their in camaraderie is more important as it acts as a counter the overwhelming corporate cheapness and pain. Barbara shows that despite the suffering and unfair conditions, low wage workers still support each other and band together to make the situation all the more bearable by putting aside the shame they bare.

A Nickle and Dimed is an interesting piece it brings a new perspective on the lives of those who aren’t so fortunate and the different methods used to cope with their situations. The themes of pain and shame in the story show how these American cope with their lives. But you can only gather so much from someone else’s perspective, the question remains how would you survive in their shoes?

CNBC’s Shawn Carter states that “Less than 20% of Americans say they are living the American Dream”. The majority of people in the U.S. don’t feel that they are living their American Dream. Barbara Ehrenreich states in her article “Nickel and Dimed”: “I am terrified, at the beginning, of being unmasked for what I am: a middle-class journalist setting out to explore the world that welfare mothers are entering, at the rate of approximately 50,000 a month, as welfare reform kicks in” (Ehrenreich, 1). In her article, she shows how much control she had in obtaining her goal. In her exploration, she shows how there are outside sources that can influence our success. Circumstances, education, economy, and people all have an effect on our journey to success, but the overall effort we put into achieving it affects the outcome the most.

In “Nickel and Dimed” circumstances played a big role in Barbara’s situation. If Barbara was wanting to be in control of her dream she would be open to any opportunity that she came across. “But I decide on two roles: …”, – she writes: “One, I cannot rise any skills derived from my education or usual work… Two, I have to take the best-paid job that is offered me and of course do my best to hold it” (Ehrenreich, 2). If she followed this she would have had more opportunities for work with higher pay. “Hotel front-desk clerk, for example, which to my surprise is regarded as unskilled and pays around $7 an hour, gets eliminated because it involves standing in one spot for eight hours a day” (Ehrenreich, 2). She goes on to say the same about waitressing because of the memories she has from doing it when she was younger. This is one of the circumstances that she should have been more open towards and taken the opportunity when it was there.

One circumstance that she couldn’t control was the living situation. There were places for rent that were close to the jobs she applied for but out of her budget: “In the Key West area, where I live, […] a pleasing fifteen minute drive from town, that has no air-conditioning, no screens, no fans, no television, […] The problem with this place, though, is rent, which at $675 a month is well beyond my reach… So I decided to make the common trade-off between affordability and convenience, and go for a $500-a-month efficiency thirty miles up a two-lane highway from the employment opportunities of Key West, meaning forty-five minutes […] [away]” (Ehrenreich, 1). This circumstance is one that she can’t control but she can control if she is behind the people. She can leave earlier so that she is sure to get to her workplace on time. This could open more opportunities for work as well to open at a store or restaurant and work the morning shift and then she could work a second job after her morning shift is over. Although people have an influence on your personal life there are things that you can do to achieve better and become successful.

Education is one of the opportunities that can help you become successful. Without an education, it can be hard to get a job that makes an income to sustain yourself or your family. Jobs that don’t require an education are referred to as unskilled jobs. “I had been vain enough to worry about coming across as too educated for the jobs I sought, but no one even seems interested in finding out how overqualified I am” (Ehrenreich, 3). When education isn’t on your toolbelt it is a lot harder to find a job. If you do find a job then it is a lower wage job that doesn’t pay nearly enough to cover the expenses to live so people end up getting more than one job. Working two jobs makes more income but doesn’t give much opportunity for an education because you are simply working all the time. This is a situation that you have little control over but if you are willing to work a part-time job and get some student loans then you can get an education and make some income to live. You just need some self-discipline and to put in more work than other people might have to.

The economy has everything to do with a dream. Money is what makes society work, and without it, there wouldn’t be a motive to work. “After all, if 30 percent of the workforce toils for less than $8 an hour, according to the EH, they may have found some tricks as yet unknown to me” (Ehrenreich, 2). There are a lot of people that work for low wages and if people were passionate about their jobs the wages would probably be higher because more people would want to go to those places. “In fact, “well” isn’t good enough by half. Do it better than anyone has ever done it before. Or so said my father, who must have known what he was talking about because he managed to pull himself, and us with him, up from the mile-deep copper mines of Butte to the leafy suburbs of the Northeast” (Ehrenreich, 4). Sadly, people don’t want to work hard because of the wage that is already set for the amount of effort that is needed for the job. “Such as the fact that the economy will inevitably undergo a downturn, eliminating many jobs. Even without a downturn, the influx of a million former welfare recipients into the low-wage labor market could depress wages by as much as 11.9 percent, according to the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) in Washington, D.C.” (Ehrenreich, 2). There are many things that can’t be controlled about the economy because it is supply and demand, but you can work the hardest and be the best at what you do to better your chances of working at a better-waged job.

Although people might not be around you every day—or you say people don’t impact who you are—they play a bigger role than you might think in your life. “At least Gail puts to rest any fears I had of appearing overqualified” (Ehrenreich, 4). Barbara was worried that people would think she was overqualified so she was nervous. Then because of some background information that she learned about Gail she didn’t worry anymore. Even the people that you are working for can have an effect on you because you don’t get any praise for what you are doing. “As a server, though, I am beset by requests like bees: more iced tea here, ketchup over there, a to-go box for table fourteen, and where are the high chairs, anyway?” (Ehrenreich, 4). This can lead to stress and cause you to be overwhelmed and not feel like you’re doing anything useful. This has an effect on your effort in your job. If you learn to deal with stress and just be used to doing the same thing everyday then you can manage to have multiple jobs and make a living off of it. Although working your life away being a waitress might not be your dream, other people might not mind it and make a living off of it. They might like living like this and it could be their American Dream.

Although the circumstances are different for everyone, the American Dream is achievable. There are a lot of factors that can throw people off the path that they want to be on but if they have determination and longing for a better life for themselves/their families then they will do whatever it takes to achieve it. In “Nickel and Dimed” Barbara didn’t have the determination to try to make a better life for herself. She was trying to see if she could live off of the minimum wage jobs that were offered. If she had something to work toward, then she would have accomplished it. The American Dream is different for everyone, what a person is willing to do to obtain it is up to them.

Immigrants come to the United States for several reasons and one of the most common is the search for better opportunities. They see the United States as a place where they can accomplish their goals. For whatever reason immigrants come to the United States, it usually involves the pursuit of the American Dream. One of the first things people who follow the American Dream look for a stable income and benefits to send money back home and provide a better future for themselves and their families. As Barbara Ehrenreich mentions in “The Futile Pursuit of the American Dream”, focuses on talking about the challenges “white-collar” employees are starting to face when it comes to finding a job. Usually, the American Dream is used as a motivation for people to work harder and commit to achieve a higher education to become more successful in life. The purpose of Ehrenreich’s essay is to indulge in white-collar employment.

Ehrenreich is a well-recognized published author and journalist. According to her personal website, she has been a public activist ever since 1970 when she became involved “with what [they] called the ‘women’s health movement,’” (About Barbara Ehrenreich – Barbara Ehrenreich). Ehrenreich is also an activist for “health care, peace, women’s rights, and economic justice” (About Barbara Ehrenreich – Barbara Ehrenreich). As the years went on, she became recognized for her works like Witches, Midwives, and Nurses: A History of Women Healers that were related to the social justice issues she stood up for. Her most recognized work has been the book: Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting by in America. The book is about her life during the time in which she was working for the minimum wage. Additionally, Ehrenreich has also had several articles published in very popular location like the New York Times. She has earned several awards and had a lot of experience in the realm of social justice. Due to her experience and hard work, Ehrenreich has earned her credibility when it comes to social activism.

The essay is meant to be targeted for an audience with members who are interested and impacted by the economy. The essay talks about the unemployment issue that started to affect even people in high and mid-level positions. Ehrenreich mentions that “there were stories of the mighty or the mere mid-level brought low, ejected from their office suites and forced to serve behind the counter at Starbucks,” (Graff). People who read this essay should have an idea about the unemployment issues taking place around the country. Those who decide to read the essay may do it to get a better idea of how serious this issue has become.

Ehrenreich starts off her essay by sounding surprised about the uprising percentages of unemployment in white-collar jobs. She admits that she was not all too interested in this socioeconomic group before noticing the unemployment trends when she writes, “I had indeed neglected [this group] as too comfortable and too powerful to merit my concern,” (About Barbara Ehrenreich – Barbara Ehrenreich). Like Ehrenreich, the common person would not usually consider members of the white-collar group to be poor even when unemployed. The main argument Ehrenreich is trying to make is that the American Dream is not as easy to achieve as one might believe. Using data from New York Times Magazine and other sources, Ehrenreich can demonstrate how unemployment is even a problem for members of the most successful socioeconomic group.

American culture stresses for youth to work hard in school until they graduate from college with a “strong” degree. Society has pinpointed majors and careers to pursue such as medicine, law, technology, and business. Ehrenreich refers to this when she writes “[youth are] setting aside their youthful passion for philosophy and music to suffer through dull practical majors like management of finance,” (Graff). Students work hard to earn these degrees to get a secure job. Ehrenreich tries to point out how the American Dream is become harder and harder to achieve as the years go by.

Ever since the Great Recession, the United States’ “long-term unemployment has become such a dominant feature in the labor market,” (Hornstein). Ehrenreich tried to find out more about this issue by going undercover and through the process of finding a job. She decided to create a fake resume and identity to apply for jobs. She mentions how she did not want to be recognized by the employers, so she changed a lot of information on her resume. Ehrenreich describes how she felt about her journey through this project when she says: “I pictured this abstraction, the corporate world, as a castle on a hill – well fortified, surrounded by difficult checkpoints, with its glass walls gleaming invitingly from on high. I knew it would be a long hard climb just to get to the door… I have stamina and resolve; and I believed that I could do this too”.

She believed that this project of going into the white-collar business was going to be easy. After all all she had to do was create a fake person, apply for jobs, and get a job for this project. It was not a blue-collar job where there is heavy lifting involved; this was a piece of cake. She expresses how wrong she was when she writes, “as it turns out, I was wrong on all accounts,” (Graff). By saying this, Ehrenreich demonstrates that finding a job in the white-collar business is not as easy as one might believe as well as maintaining it. One can be fired from any job and lose everything whether it is a white – or blue-collar job.

Rhetorical appeals are separated into three main categories by writers: ethos, logos, and pathos. Ethos regards the credibility and trust that an author establishes with their audience. If Ehrenreich’s experience as a journalist, author, and social justice activist is considered, then she is a credible person. Throughout her essay, Ehrenreich mentions how she never had much thought toward the white-collar society because of their seemingly good life until she heard about the “tales of hardships … coming from people who were once members in good standing in the middle class,” (Graff). After noticing this, she decided to dig deeper and learn more about the situation at hand. Her experience led her to come up with the plan of going undercover and getting a firsthand experience of the white-collar world.

Ehrenreich does a good job at appealing to her audience through logos by using the information and research of other sources. By using other sources, she makes her claim even stronger because she uses statistics and facts. Ehrenreich writes, “A 2004 survey of executives … 68 percent concerned about unexpected firings and layoffs,” (Graff). The statistic she uses shows that what she is saying is not just opinion; unemployment issues have reached white-collar jobs. She confirms that research has been done concerning the fear of being left unemployed from white-collar employees.

Pathos is the appeal to emotion. Ehrenreich does a good job at using it because she writes about her personal struggle during her project. She connects with the audience through pathos when she talks about the stress she undertook when creating her resume for the jobs. Anyone who has been on the search of a job can relate to Ehrenreich when she writes, “I would do everything possible to land a job,” (Graff). Several people have lived through the need to get a job to pay medical and utility bills, help others, etc. Ehrenreich connects with the audience by expressing her feelings of stress, frustration, and surprise during her journey of finding a white-collar job. The pathos appeal is effective because she talks about a common experience faced by almost everyone.

When I finished reading her essay, I realized that she did a good job at making her point. Her personal touches made her writing that much more effective in informing me about the unemployment problems white-collar employees are having. Ehrenreich helped me see that the American Dream is indeed futile since it is becoming harder and harder to get a job. Although, the true problem comes after getting the job because you never know when you might get fired even if you follow all the rules and your performance is above average. Ehrenreich also demonstrated how passionate she is about her job by going undercover and telling her first-hand experience. Her essay was not what I expected due to her touch of personal notes along her entire work. She did not simply state facts or statistics but included her personal story which made all the difference to me.

Works Cited:

1. “About Barbara Ehrenreich – Barbara Ehrenreich.” Barbara Ehrenreich, https://barbaraehrenreich.com/barbara-ehrenreich-bio
2. Graff, Gerald, and Cathy Birkenstein. “The (Futile) Pursuit of the American Dream.” Bait and Switch: The Pursuit of the American Dream, by Barbara Ehrenreich, Henry Holt and Company, 2005.
3. Hornstein, Andreas, and Thomas A. Lubik. The Rise in Long-Term Unemployment: PotentialnCauses and Implications. Richmond: Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, 2010. ProQuest. Web. 25 Feb. 2019.

The film “Nickel and Dimed: From the American Ruling Class” shows the life of low-wage workers in Americas society. In this video, Barbara Ehrenreich went about trying to mimic their life style and work ethic firsthand, living as a low-wage worker. I was very impressed at her angle of perspective to consider low-wage workers as the major “philanthropists” of our society. Often times we say that we serve someone or something but that all comes from our own pride and superiority. Eventually, we end up with finding out that we are being served by the ones who we thought of being served by and who we thought we were serving. I have also come to rethink the limitations of the welfare system in America. In the video, Ehrenreich claimed that “people are living in a state of emergency, not even at a sustainable level of suffering in many cases due to a lack of food, inadequate housing, and insufficient childcare”. There were too many factors working against them, especially things like a prolonged time without healthcare and poor education.

Barbara Ehrenreich is a prominent journalist and writer who went undercover as a low wage worker to find out how non-skilled workers are able to maintain the basic standard of life. She worked in a restaurant, retail store, nursing home, and for a housecleaning service to get an in-depth analysis of her question and experienced a poor life that fits her salary level. She wrote about all the other things that accompany minimum-wage work, such as budget crises, stress, housing insecurity, etc. In the process, she pointed out the extreme poverty and unfair treatment of the working poor, and the structural problem of sustaining their poverty. What she recorded and presented allowed people to rethink about the working poor, change their perspectives on their working condition and ignite many protests against unjust working places. Her work has exerted a beneficent influence on working class.

Barbara Ehrenreich’s main research methodology in this study is participant observation. She jumped into the lives of low-wage workers who struggle to make ends meet and did research on whether she could maintain her life at the minimum wage. She came to understand their plight by putting down her successful social status in society and experiencing the lives of the low-wage class. Information she gathered during this research is mostly qualitative, rather than quantitative, the end results she drew was that minimum wages were not enough to help workers maintain a decent standard of living. Barbara Ehrenreich’s research methodology can be considered both sociological and scientific.