Nickel and Dimed

From LeoWiki

Score	Title	Author	Genre
9.4	Nickel and Dimed: On not Getting by in America	Barbara Ehrenreich	Non-Fiction

Technophilia	9
Secularity	9
Quality	10
Xenophilia	10
Personal Tilt	9

This is a fantastic non-fiction book that I recommend to everyone. Elegantly worded, it cuts through social issues like a buckminster fullerene knife.

Ehrenreich is a journalist who volunteers to work for and live on minimum wage during a rather prolonged assignment. She goes on to experience 24/7/365 life as a waitress, maid, Walmart clerk, and member of several other honoured professions.

Her experience highlights difficulties in obtaining shelter, food, medicine, and human dignity when lacking in both income and much startup capital.

On minimum wage, it is virtually impossible to save up enough to make a required deposit for an apartment. That consigns many to permanently residing in expensive motels or in cars.

Businesses that rely on minimum wage workers don't particularly care about employee well-being. It makes short-sighted sense to just overwork the warm bodies and just get a new one when they burn out or some emergency forces them to stay home.

The poverty statistic is tied to the price of food, but, over the decades, that price has remained fairly stable while rents have risen markedly.

Welfare reform has largely been extremely unfair. Most people forced off welfare have remained unemployed and paupered. No statistics have been kept and both US parties backed the idea.

There's a lot more neat stuff, but it's 3:30 AM and I am going to cut this short.

The use of "she" as a generic abstract pronoun was also an interesting experiment.

Great book.