Por cuatro duros : cómo (no) apañárselas en Estados…

Kanay:
J'ai aimé ce livre parce qu'il parlait de la pauvreté en Amérique. Ce livre me donne une perspective sur la pauvreté en Amérique. Cette femme essaie de vivre dans un petit appartement et elle est stressée. Elle est stressée car elle doit beaucoup travailler. ( )

Simran Ajwani- (pour mars)
Nickel and Dimed est un livre sur une personne qui s'appelle Barbara Ehrenreich. C'est une histoire vraie. Elle est riche, mais elle fait une expérience pour voir comment est la vivre pauvre. Elle dit que l'expérience se terminera si elle perd sa voiture, elle est sans abri, ou elle a faim. C'est un livre très déprimant, parce que il révèle les difficultés des travailleurs pauvres. Elle travaille d'abord comme serveuse, puis elle travaille comme femme de ménage, et enfin elle travaille chez walmart. Tout le travail est fatigant, et l'argent qu'elle gagne ne suffit pas pour vivre. Elle apprend que les pauvres souffrent beaucoup, et il est temps de changer. ( )

A writer goes on a mission to walk in the shoes of the working poverty level wage-earnings. The idea sounds awesome but ultimately falls short.

Mostly, the book just seems detached. More like a grad student documenting the mating habits of the fruit fly. Ho-hum. And except for Barbara, most everyone just blended together into some kind of sob story indistinguishable from each other.

The idea is so grand that I would like to see someone else take a stab it.

There are too many holes. Aren't most jobs difficult the first few weeks? Every job must have some kind of learning curve. If nothing else learning new acronyms, finding the bathroom, or just figuring out who the alpha dog is in this new social structure. Then adding in moving and finding one's way around a new town on top of this.

I wanted to like this book. I wanted to cheer Barbara on and develop an appreciation for the working poverty-level wage earning class. But I'm more glad I'm done with the book and can move on to other things. ( )

An intimate analysis of the working poor told from the point-of-view of an undercover journalist who attempted to live and work for minimum wages in three locations in the United States for three months with minimal assistance. A must read for anyone who has either worked for minimum wage or who has employed someone who does. ( )

Maybe 3 1/2 stars. It was copyrighted in 2001 and I'm reading it in 2020 so most of the information and statistics are over 20 years old. My fault - for waiting so long to read it, but it's distracting and annoying. Ehrenreich's tone is also condescending and her "experiment" has too many loopholes to be very scientific. There are some amusing anecdotes and occasional a-ha moments but you can get a better, more current story by reading [b:Maid: Hard Work, Low Pay, and a Mother's Will to Survive|39218350|Maid Hard Work, Low Pay, and a Mother's Will to Survive|Stephanie Land|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1573822660l/39218350._SY75_.jpg|60800466] . And, unfortunately, you know from the beginning what Ehrenreich is going to find right? Good people laboring under extremely low wages and high housing costs. Even the last chapter, "Evaluation" is mostly just complaining about how badly off the poor are. Certainly they are badly off, but I guess I was hoping for a bit more .... evaluation .... of Ehrenreich's own personal experiment. ( )