#3

Introduction:

Here I'm going to put...

-Attention getter; maybe something about the cost of living versus the wages, or the startling numbers of poverty and welfare in America
-Introduction of author Barbara Ehrenreich; journalist who likes to write about women, welfare, poverty, etc.
-Start talking about the book Nickel and Dimed and what exactly Ehrenreich was doing when accepting to do this piece
-Ground rules and what set Ehrenreich apart
-Get into her main claim about how no one can live off the low wage system and survive without some type of help from the government.

Thesis/Claim: Ehrenreich proves that no one, in this society, can survive with the low wage lifestyle without government assistance.

Ehrenreich main arguments in the Evaluation:
-People that look unskilled just because they work at a low wage job is just a stereotype; it is hard work that needs to be done

pg. 193: "The first thing I discovered is that no job, no matter how lowly, is truly "unskilled." Everyone of the six jobs I entered into in the course of this project required concentration, and most demanded that I master new terms, new tools, new skills..."

-The jobs she encountered for the low wage workers were demanding and phycially hard.

It is not the worker, but the market that is difficult for the low wage
worker to fit in

It is hard for the poor to live in this economy; It is not the worker's fault but the way the economy works; the rich get richer and the poor get poorer.

-Main Problem: Housing Situation; It is very difficult for a low wage worker to afford and even find any type of housing.
Ehrenreich goes to get help from a government program. They basically tell her to stay at a shelter and save up money to afford a place to stay.

pg. 173: "When I tell her I'm working at Wal-Mart and what I earn, she suggests I move into a shelter so I can save up enough for a first month's rent and deposit, then she send me to another office where she says I can apply for a housing subsidy..."

-How are low wage workers to find a job if housing availabilty is at its lowest

pg. 172: "...apparently you don't need dot-com welath to ruin an area for its low-income residents. the Pioneer Press quotes Secretary of HUD Andrew Cuomo ruing the 'cruel irony' that prosperity is shrinking the stock of affordable housing nationwide...So I'm not a victim of poverty but prosperity. The rich and the poor...can no longer coexist."
Main Problem: Health Issues of low wage workers; forced (or have to for money) work through ailments.
Low wage workers dedsperately need the money, so they have to work through all types of ailments like broken ankles to horrible skin rashes.
pg. 110: "'Something snapped,' she sobs, 'I heard it snap.' I help her up, ordering Marge, who's been standing there with her mouth hanging open, to take her arm...All she'll consent to is calling Ted from the next house...Holly just keeps crying and talking about how she's already missed so many days of work."
pg. 87: "After two days of minor irritation, a full scale epidermal breakdown is underway. I cover myself with Anit-Itch creme from Rite Aid but can manage to osleep only for an hour and a half time...only because I look like a leper."
Main problem: Manipulation between the low wage workers and management.
They need to get acceptance from their bosses.
pg. 116: "She is sixty-seven and has been on the job longer that anyone-two years-...Her back has since given out but she's leaving now because she's scheduled for knee surgery...Still Ted makes no mention of her departure at the morning meeting of her last day, nor does he that her privately or wish her well at the end of the day...But Mostly she talks about Ted and her feeling of hurt."

The management witholds the first check; tries to put one woman against the other so no one overthrows the management.
pg. 115: "...he's got some great gals. like Holly and Liza, but there's a certain number of malcontents and he jus twishes they'd stop their complaining. I know what he's talking about, right? This must be my cue to name a few names, becaus this is how Ted operates, my coworkers claim-through snitches and by setting up one woman against another."

Conclusion:
With the way that the economy is, there is no way to survive with only one low-income job. There is just no way, without some government assistance to survive in the system that the country has created where the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. There are many problems that low wage workers have to fight through, like health conditions and housing, just to get a chance to work and still they are not respected by their peers.

One recommendation is that Ehrenreich should not exaggerate her claims the way she does in Nickel and Dimed. Her findings may be true but I feel like she exaggerated way too much. Also I think her ground rules lost her some of her credibilty in her "living" the life of a low wage worker. She had too many resources to be considered a "low-income" worker.