Nickel & Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich

Nickel & Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich


Barbara Ehrenreich is an established author and magazine writer with an educational background in biology. One day, while meeting with and editor from Harper's to discuss future projects, she came up with the idea of doing an old-fashioned journalistic investigation by plunging herself into a specific environment and then recording her observations.

Actually, her original intention was for someone else to do the project, but the Harper's editor insisted she was the woman for the job. This method is an anthropological technique where the researcher is a "participant observer."

I looked up the phrase "participant observer" on the Internet. The website for the International Institute for Sustainable Development describes the technique this way: "The method derives from the insight that you derive from a community's values, dynamics, internal relationships, structures and conflicts best from their observed actions, rather than from their (normative) statements of what "is". The participant observer attempts immersion, to the extent permitted, in local life in order to understand and document how things work." I also understand that this methodology sometimes involves consulting individuals within the demographic to be observed to get their opinion as to the steps of the process and the specifics proposed. I don't believe the author did this. I believe she asked the opinion of colleagues and friends, and used her own opinions and assumptions to decide on the specifics for this project.

Like any research technique, there are benefits and drawbacks as to the ultimate accuracy of the outcome of an observer's research. Participant observation is more accurate than surveys or statistics, as the research is hands-on. Being thrown into an environment reveals a bigger picture than words and numbers on a piece of paper.

The down side to this method is that the observations are subjective. The experiences of one observer can vary widely. Each individual human being has their own unique experience in life, and although there are commonalities in situations and environments, the view can become skewed if it is from only one perspective and not a wider sampling.

Barbara Ehrenreich began her research by first choosing a specific area of the United States in which to do her research. The locations she chose were in Florida, Maine, and Minnesota, three completely different areas of the United States and seemingly objective.

She would then look for a job. She specifically looked for entry-level type jobs for people without college degrees or special skills. To hide her education and impressive job experience she would state

on the job applications that she was a stay-at-home mother returning to the work force after a long period of time. This part was very believable. It's a typical scenario: A woman gets pregnant young, doesn't go to college, gets married, years later gets divorced, enters the work force for the first time at an older age with no experience, skills, or education.

This part was the most interesting of the project. Although I believe one month is not enough time to truly absorb what life is like for a person in a specific profession and/or job, I do believe one month was enough for a general idea, or a window to what life is like for the person she was pretending to be. I say this for several reasons. True exhaustion builds over time. Someone working eleven hours a day, six days a week for a month has an easier experience. If a person knows they only have to live this way for a month, it’s easier to live with, as there is an end in sight. The situation and mind-set is much different for someone who has no end in sight, and faces the strong possibility that the rest of their life will be just like this. The latter grim realization can cause a deep exhaustion; both depression and physical exhaustion combined.

Feeling truly jaded develops over a long period of time. The person she was pretending to be may have had a difficult childhood, had parents with similarly grim work experiences. There's a pain and desperation that only a person who has lived too long a certain way can feel. That said, I think her observations did give a general idea of how people feel and live in her chosen situations, through her personal experience and her observations and experiences with the people she encountered on this journey. I think she absorbed enough to write about it and give the general public a perspective on the specific professions observed.

Ms. Ehrenreich would take little breaks from her alternative lives periodically. She would share her observations with her friends. At one point, her friends opined that they were surprised she could have intelligent conversations and have things in common with the people she was dealing with. In her defense, she did chastise her friends who held that opinion.

Circumstances have nothing to do with intelligence. A person can have rotten luck in their lifetime. There can be unfortunate circumstances that lead to a lack of opportunities. Bad things happen to people. An intelligent person with poor circumstances that lead to a lack of educational opportunities can self-educate his or herself and actually carry on quite intelligent conversations. On the other hand, someone with a low I.Q. can graduate from Yale because of his or her family connections and not from any real merit.

She would then look for an affordable place to live. I believe this is the area where the author made assumptions. She calculated about how much she would be earning and searched for what would be considered typical housing for someone employed in the chosen profession of her research. What she assumed was that she could find something decent in her price range. This is also the one area where I disagreed with her process. She always looked for furnished apartments, as she was only staying there for a month. Generally, furnished apartments are hard to find.

People with a low income usually live in apartments that come unfurnished and furnish the space sparsely themselves. They generally have several roommates to share the rent, or move in with a relative.

Even though I disagree with some of her methods, such as the apartment issue, I believe her research was valid, useful, and fascinating. I also enjoyed her sarcasm toward the mundane, soul-killing practices of large corporations such as Wal-Mart and Menard’s. To get a true picture of a low income person’s life, one would have to live that life, but I think her brief experiences at least gave her readers a window into the realities of other lives.

I found this book interesting and relatable in the sense that you can never really walk in someone else's shoes, but you can get a taste.  Those of us living on the spectrum have a special understanding of each other.  I think if someone lived my life for a week or a month, they would get a taste of what it's like - maybe just the difficult things, but hopefully see some of the joy and the things I'm grateful for.


http://www.amazon.com/Nickel-Dimed-Not-Getting-America/dp/0805063897