Nickel and Dimed By Barbara Ehrenreich

Blue collar jobs are decent means to earn a living.  However, upon reading Nickel and Dimed, a sad reality on the plight of the working poor or the low-wage workforce would wrenched anyone’s heart thinking that if this one is happening in America what will happen to the rest of the other world for instance the poorer countries or we may say the fourth world?

The world look up at America’s prosperity but in reading the book of Ehrenreich somebody with a heart would say leave behind that job that enslave and find a living!  This can be easier said but in the true sense it is not the case.  The world we are in is a competition and harsh to people who have the misfortune of having the least opportunity.

For this reason, a gesture of kindness or a smile for the working class would alleviate their misery and this is the least we can do or offer them.  Moreover, it is a thing every man should ponder, and to find ways and means to eradicate such meanness.

Essay for question number 2

Affordable housing is always in locations called the inner city.  No low-wage worker can afford a prime location and these locations are normally the place where somebody could easily find a job.  Moreover, city planners and businesses cater to the public who have the highest purchasing power because that means business.  With these realities, one may say that the problem is difficult to solve.

Habitat for Humanity offers affordable housing but to marginalize few, this international housing organization despite its efforts can not extend its arms to every body that will be in need for low-cost housing.  Many of the working class has a need for affordable housing but it is a bone wrecking effort to make both ends meet.  Probably the only remedy is to lower the living condition and live within the most viable limit.  Truly the best way for a poor person is to live a frugal and detached life and that is to live in a trailer house?

Essay for question number 3

Color or hues, even if we say we live in a free country still matters not because it is the Americas but on the simple truth that man are judgmental, discriminating or simply out of touch to reality, greedy or just bent on maximizing their profits.

The life of working person begins not in front of his or her job but in the home when she or he start pulling the laundry, wash the dishes or fetch a son or daughter in school.  These are domestic works which needs to be polished day in and out.  In fact, this daily duties is enough challenge to a single parent when he or she needs to battle his or her time from the job that is at hand.  Moreover, single parents do not receive much emotional backups and for this reasons are occasionally being construed by a society to be in need of help but are often are the ones most of the times victimized.

Essay for question number 4

Low-wage workers are often times people because of poverty have low self-esteem and for some are rebels.  These workers find difficulty in asserting themselves.  Just imagine the torture of everyday, fighting for the lease of a life that seemed to becoming expensive everyday?  Mentally these are poor workers who have already despaired on their sad fate that since there is no choice left to live, these are just the guys who would shrug their shoulder and live until one can still swallow an air to breath.

People who are bereft of a just wage are men marginalized in a materialistic society that lords over technology.  A hedonistic society that looks down on men who belongs to the working class and despised them as if they are not flesh and bones like the rest of the human race.  Every citizen has the right to a just wage, a safe working condition, and a job that could sustain not just the pocket but the heart and mind as well.

However, some rights are often undermine by the lack of concern not only from the policy makers but also from the public itself when people patronized products that are cheap because it provides cheap labor to its workers.  Employees of ill-minded owners or greedy businesses should make a stand not to patronized products and services that belong to these suckers.  There is a call for genuine solidarity among employees so that demands will be laid in the most effective and orderly manner or strategy.  With Barbara,  one would say that a 6$ job is not enough “to compensate indignity” (Ehrenreich, 2000).

References

Ehrenreich, B. (2000). Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America [Electronic Version]. Retrieved 29 February 2008, from http://www.henryholt.com/readingguides/ehrenreich.htm