'Nickel and Dimed' is an incredibly readable book; I went through it in a single reading session. It is the the first person account of a writer/journalist setting out in three different parts of America to quickly get a menial job and somewhere to live. She finds that jobs are easy to come by (this was around a decade ago, before the credit crunch and subsequent recession/depression), but so badly paid that it's practically impossible to afford a home. As far as I can tell, the shortage of affordable housing is possibly the most significant element of contemporary poverty in the developed world. The book demonstrates this remarkably well, noting that poverty is associated in political rhetoric with joblessness. The plight of those in low-wage jobs is almost entirely ignored. Very much the same political messages can be observed in the UK. Indeed, although much of it is specific to the US, the UK also has severe, intractable problems with housing affordability. It is therefore instructive to read this book as a non-US dweller, not merely in order to exclaim in horror at America's inequalities.

Ehrenreich's accounts are clearly expressed and feel both honest and humble. The tone she struck felt right to me; she remained aware of her white middle-class privilege where a less self-aware writer could have sounded patronising. I was particularly struck by her vivid description of the creepy oppressiveness of working in Walmart. On a personal level, I was also reminded of the fact that when I've been trying to live on very little money, I have always been in the advantageous position of studenthood. As a student, I've been money-poor but time-rich which allows, for example, for cross-town bike expeditions purely to save £1 on a massive bag of cereal. The situation Ehrenreich experiences and describes is that of being both money- and time-poor, creating a terrible poverty trap. Given the general lack of economic and political awareness of this trap and it's consequences, this is an important book. Although from an academic perspective it consists merely of three one-off time-limited case studies, it deserves wide attention, especially from policy-makers.

As a final note, the book this most reminded me of was George Orwell's 'Down and Out in Paris and London'. I haven't read the latter recently, but suspect that the two would probably complement each other. Orwell has an equally compassionate and clear-eyed view of poverty, explained through personal experience. ( )

I listed to the audiobook.

This book follows the author's socio-economic experiment working minimum wage jobs in various part of the U.S. to see if she can make ends meet. This was in 1998-2000 so the specifics are not all relevant to today but there are some really acute observations not just into the economics, but into the psychology of the working poor. Though there have been some improvements in the last 25 years, I suspect the situation is largely worse due to the affordable housing crisis. I did not like the author at all. She is an ultra-progressive New Yorker Socialist seemingly unaware of her hypocrisy as she judges basically everyone and everything in standard NYC elitist fashion. I still recommend the book as there are some really excellent insights. ( )

Still applicable today although written 20 years ago ( )

Fascinating account of what those who are in manual labor positions experience. Barbara Ehrenreich goes undercover to report on what these workers endure.
She gets hired as a maid, a cleaner, a waitress, and an employee at Walmart. She exposes the inequality and treatment, the pay discrepancies, the terrible living conditions, the stringent guidelines (long hours, very short lunch breaks, low pay). I was appalled at the Merry Maids cleaning policies, and saddened by the treatment these workers endure.
A must read! ( )

Momentous...

I actually was curious to try it myself. And then i spot this one.

A must read.