Nickel and Dimed discussion

The story, "Nickel and Dimed", goes in depth of a low wageworker's life. Barbara Ehrenreich, an undercover journalist, decides to experiment what its like to survive as an adult worker making minimum wage in the United States and being able to support themselves with that salary. Working as a housekeeper, Barbara considered minimum wage jobs as "unskilled". Barbara later then realized her hard work was not valorized by management while only making roughly seven dollars an hour. She assumed "being a housekeeper was like cleaning her own home", not realizing that cleaning other people's mess was very unpleasant. At any point, she knew she could walk out of her experiment. However, she knew her coworkers did this for a living and was the only way to receive income to provide. Barbara's time working these low paying assignments allows her to view it differently. The stress of continuing living under these circumstances start to play a factor in her mental state. Although critics say the story is "unrealistic" due to Barbara's prior knowledge of working these jobs, I personally recommend this book as it gives insight on how some people really struggle to make ends meet. By reading this book, it made me appreciate what some close relatives have been through.