Ah, the American Dream. Get a humble, hands-on job and give it all your heart. With hard work and prudent living, you can ascend the ladder of life to give your children a better chance. Each generation will reach farther than that of their parents. You can do all of this if you just have the will and fortitude to stick with it.
Or can you?
Barbara Ehrenreich is a journalist who also holds a Ph.D. in biology. Although she is far from the working poor, her family ascended from this level not too many generations ago. She noted the prevalence of the American Dream myth in the minds of the middle-and-higher class people she interacted with. The year was 1998-- the height of the economic boom. Ehrenreich wondered, "What's it like for those at the bottom right now? How do they get by, and are they moving up?"
Instead of thinking about these questions, Ehrenreich decided to live them. She decided to get a low-paying job (in the $6-$8/hour range) and try to live on the salary, dealing with her own housing, food, transportation, and living expenses.
When I had only heard talk about this book, I was a little skeptical. Would it be like a Western anthropologist going to live with the natives and observe their behavior? On the one hand, I worried that it would have a zoo-like flavor-- "ooh, let's observe those other people and imagine what it's like to be that way!"-- exuding the professional detachment of the intellectual classes. On the other hand, I worried that Ehrenreich would try to claim that she had really experienced the underclass and was now giving us an objective report of How It Really Is, despite the fact that she knew all along she could return to her home (and her bank account) at any time. In other words, I worried both that it would be too detached and too falsely intimate; could a study like this even be done?
I still wouldn't say the study was flawless, but at least it turned out that Ehrenreich was fully aware of the potential problems. She never claimed that she was living the life of the working poor in a complete way. She went in with a set of well-defined ground rules (she would take the highest-paying job she was offered, she would try not to rely on skills she had from her advanced education (this turned out not to be a problem!), she would allow herself to have a Rent-a-Wreck car, etc). And furthermore, she had a well-defined goal: keep a roof over her head and food in her stomach for one month.
One month? Sounds easy. Never mind pursuing the American Dream-- Ehrenreich wasn't trying to move up, she just wanted to survive for 30 days. She did this in three diverse locations (Florida, Maine, and Minnesota), working three different kinds of low-paying job (waitress, cleaning lady, and retail). "Nickel and Dimed" chronicles her experiences on a day-to-day basis. I'll give this book a "+."
The outstanding lesson is that survival at the bottom is not easy. Millions of Americans do it-- and Ehrenreich did too, barely-- but the challenges are formidable. And sometimes the challenges are not what you might expect.
Ehrenreich describes a world that is eternally present-tense. Workers in low-wage jobs are doing physical tasks nearly continually for 8 hours (or in many cases, longer). Often they are tasks that require significant attention, such as waitressing or cleaning, although they may also be bone-achingly repetitive, such as folding clothes. (In fact, injuries and repetitive-stress problems are epidemic among these workers. Nearly everyone has some sort of trouble, but most cannot afford to participate in the company's (always very limited) health plan). To a far greater degree than those in educated professions, low-wage workers live with perpetual uncertainty about what they will have to do next, what orders will be given from on high, and what tools they will be given to do the tasks.
Not only is the work present-tense, but the money is too. Saving is all but impossible when housing costs have risen to nearly 50% of living expenses. The poor have strategies-- most live with other people because they can't afford their own place-- but nonetheless, an increasing number must live in hotels, which is even more expensive. Renting an apartment requires having the first month's rent plus a deposit in cash. On a wage of less than $10/hour, few people have hundreds of dollars just lying around. Also, not being able to afford the monthly deduction for a health care plan means that health expenses, when they do arise, are more costly. Again and again, it's the same story: If you don't have money, you can't get yourself into a situation that allows you to save more money. It is expensive to be poor.
Ehrenreich's experiences are worth reading about. No second-hand description could do them justice. I also found her commentary throughout the book to be interesting. She wonders why wage workers put up with their conditions, particularly during boom times. In 1998-1999, America faced its biggest worker crunch ever-- why didn't these people assert their value to employers, demanding some changes? The issue is more complex than could be dealt with in "Nickel and Dimed," of course, but Ehrenreich's experiences at the bottom provide some interesting pieces of the picture.
For instance, she notes that in the hiring process for these jobs, there is never a negotiation stage as there is for professional jobs. In fact, the wage is not always made clear to the applicant until after they have taken the job! We might say, "Well, how come they don't think to ask?", but it's more complicated than that. Because there is no tradition of negotiation, there is no awareness of it on the part of workers, and there is no tolerance of it on the part of employers. The entire atmosphere is one of mildly hostile paternalism: workers are treated as children, not trusted, and fed a lot of pap about company pride and the value of good service that is supposed to motivate them to smile all day even though their feet are killing them. For the most part, workers really do want to take pride in their work-- Ehrenreich encountered many dedicated people, to a degree that sometimes scared her a bit given the places they were dedicating themselves to. And yet, they were also aware that they were not decision-makers and were willing to get what they could out of the limited freedoms the system offered them. This occasionally resulted in actions deplored by management-- some food stolen by a hungry worker, a company van taken for a joy ride. Overall, the balance between workers and management is very delicate (and not quite symbiotic).
More disturbingly, Ehrenreich noted that in these low-paying jobs, workers must "check their civil rights at the door." When you sign on at Walmart, you agree to let management search your purse and dictate when you are allowed to go to the bathroom. Many measures these people put up with would be illegal if practiced by the government. But they have no choice because they need the job, and all employers at their level do the same things. Again, you can ask why they don't protest, and again, it's highly complex. The same capitalist system that (barely) feeds and clothes these people extracts a high cost in health, dignity, and psychological freedom.
Walmart claims that it needs to search for drugs-- and indeed drugs are a problem among low-wage workers, and employers are affected by that and need some measures to deal with it. But it's a real stretch to violate the Constitution. After all, drug incidence is high among the white middle class, too. It is no accident that workers with a little economic power and the ability to choose from many employers experience fewer indignities than those who have fewer choices. How much of America's "freedom and democracy" one experiences is highly dependent on social class.
"Nickel and Dimed" is not about gawking at the poor, nor about believing that middle class people can really experience their lives. It is exactly what Ehrenreich purported: get a low-wage job, try to live for a month, and write about what happened. She even told some of her coworkers at the end of her stints that she was actually a journalist, doing this as a project. For the most part, this had (surprisingly?) little effect. Most were simply sorry to hear that she wouldn't be back at work on Monday. Notably, no one ever said to her, "Gee, Barbara, you seem smarter than average." So much for the Ph.D. and middle class background shining through the maid's outfit.
I recommend this book. It's a quick read, but one that's likely to stick with you.
Copyright © Kim Allen 2001
