Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America by Barbara Ehrenreich

Nickel and Dimed has been on my reading list for almost 10 years. I'm incredibly happy that I finally got around to it! Ehrenreich's writing is easy to read even if her subject is not comfortable to read about. Essentially, Ehrenreich questioned the "conventional" wisdom of the late 1990s and early 2000s that welfare recipients simply needed to get out and get a job to live a better life. Ehrenreich tried it herself; she entered the workforce as a displaced homemaker, worked low wage jobs (waitress, maid, cleaning, nursing aid, sales), and struggled mightily to survive. Ehrenreich was not successful at survival, but her narrative of her attempts is telling. The best part of the book, however, is her evaluation of the experience and of public policy.

Ehrenreich will make most of us reconsider our welfare reform, the working poor, and our role in keeping the working poor in their place. To quote: "the 'working poor,' as they are approvingly termed, 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" (221).

Librarians often need to remind the rapidly digitizing, technologically connected world that there are technological "haves" and "have nots." Nickel and Dimed really cemented the "have nots" side of the world for me.