Can the Amount of Income M eet the Expenses ?

1. Can the Amount of Income Meet the Expenses? In the summer of 1996, Congress passed and the President signed the "Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996." radically transforming the nation's welfare system. (Welfare Reform, 2009). Tracking Welfare Reformhttp://www.libertynet.org/edcivic/welfref.html The Welfare Reform Law remains extremely controversial. It presented opportunity for some and encouragement for others. The intent of the law was to assist low income households in becoming self sufficient by mandating single female parents head of household to obtain full-time employment that paid at least minimum wage. In the interim, if this requirement was not met, then the recipient must endure the loss or sanctions of needed welfare benefits. (Welfare Reform, 2009). While the number of low income welfare recipients decreased, corporate welfare benefits increased. The Welfare Reform Law proved to be a strategically planned mechanism to build a cheap labor supply for business owners. To experience poverty or not to experience poverty ? That is the question that Nickel and Dimed, authored by Barbara Ehrenreich, attempts to answer. From a realistic standpoint, individuals that are embedded in the never ending cycle of poverty find it difficult to find the path out. Is there a path out of poverty -- other than becoming a criminal (the path of least resistance)?

2. Global Gender Gap Index 2007. A gender gap exists between women and men in the employment arena. Most noticeable is the gap in the payment of wages. “. . .the gap between women and men on economic participation and political empowerment remains wide: only 58% of the economic outcomes gap and only 14% of the political outcomes gap has been closed. See http://www.weforum.org/en/initiatives/gcp/Gender%20Gap/index.htm (Gender Gap, 2009). In Nickel and Dimed, Enrenreich, a successful writer, decides to experiment living in the class of the working poor. In her new role in society she prepares to live in an environment that is built upon a totally different culture and value system that she intends to find her niche in. To her advantage is the ability to allocate a certain amount of money to herself to begin with for preparation of her journey into the world of financial instability. She finds affordable housing in a trailer home and then sets out to find employment. Her first experience in searching for a job presents difficulty in finding a job that pays a livable wage. However, after a slow beginning, she lands a waitress job in a greasy spoon. After calculating her monthly expenses and preparing a budget, she determines that the income from her waitress job should be enough to survive on and to pay the next month’ s rent. To her dismay after working faithfully and spending only for the bare necessities she realizes that the wages from the waitress job is not enough to meet expenses from month to month. Thus, she seeks out a second job and was fortunate enough to get hired in a motel as a cleaning lady. Unfortunately, due to the demanding pace of the work required she lasted for one day on that job. At this point, the reality of the powerlessness of the working poor materializes because of the difficulties she has encountered in such a small amount of time. Therefore, it is reasonable to gather from this portion of the writing that she has experienced and recognizes the tribulations that the working poor must endure in their employment and personal lives on a regular basis. Since this is an experiment, she can easily call upon her financial backing to opt out of Key West, Florida. However, on the realistic scale the working poor cannot relocate this easily. She moves on to Maine only to experience the same set of disappointing circumstances in a different place. As a result, she realizes the truth behind housing, employment and wage discrimination and discrimination that people in poverty are subjected to regularly. In summary, regardless of her getting the jobs, the wages were not a livable wage and offered little or no job security, benefits or upward mobility. Most importantly, is that she immediately realized that there existed no easy path out of the condition of poverty that has a grip upon a substantial amount of people, even though she had White privilege to her advantage(Johnson, Allan, 2006).

3. Understanding Poverty and Economic Inequality in the United States (Rector, Robert 2004). In Nickel and Dimed, Ehrenreich’s experiment began in 1998. The chart above illustrates the impact of the recession of poverty during that time. Even though the poverty rate was supposedly decreasing on a large scale, on a small scale it was not a reality that all working class individuals could realize.

4. SERVICE LEARNING My service learning project at Central Elementary School relates to Nickel and Dimed in that education is one of the major paths for an individual to avoid being caught in the cycle of poverty once a child becomes an adult. It is a fact that if an individual does not obtain a formal education, in some circumstances, beyond high school it will be difficult for that person to obtain employment that will pay enough to elevate above the class of the working poor. Thus, without a formal education, an individual’s standard of living will be one that will be viewed as undesirable by society. For example, Ehrenreich had to decrease the level of her education from a Phd to three years of college in order to fit into the society of the working class poor. Additionally, it was imperative that she reduce the amount of her work experience. In this vein, it can be concluded that without these major revisions she would be deemed overqualified for employment that is similar to the working poor.

5. SERVICE LEARNING Education is relevant to the kind of job an individual can successful achieve. If an applicant lacks the necessary qualifications for a job, it is a high probability that they will not obtain that type of employment. A potential employee’s skills are valued and identified by a prospective employer. Accordingly, employment and wages are commensurate to the level of education and work experience. Therefore, even with three years of college on her resume, she faced difficulties in finding employment that paid enough to meet her monthly expenses. Equally important, was that she had no real control of the amount of salary and type of job she could apply for. When seeking employment one of the major considerations is that enough income will at least be enough to meet monthly expenses. As a result, she was limited to applying for jobs that were considered unskilled. Once she obtained employment, she discovered the deplorable treatment and working conditions of the working poor to be less than desirable. However, the working class individual must submit to these conditions in order to remain employed and to have a source of income. Thus, in some respects a formal education could elevate some of the working class above such demeaning circumstance. Therefore, my service learning project within an elementary school classroom is providing students with a foundation for a needed education to elevate above the working poor. The path to poverty is not difficult to find, but the path out of poverty may never be found.

6. Reviewed by Judith Helburn • Posted on 02/21/2002 • Nonfiction: Memoir; Nonfiction BOOK REVIEW • No wonder so many of the poor in America are overweight and have poor health. They can not afford to eat well, even if they are lucky enough to have access to a kitchen. Even those fortunate enough to have some kind of health insurance often must pay a large deductible. No wonder 80% of Medicare money goes to the poor elderly. Most of them are women. • Journalist Barbara Ehrenreich spends a month in each of three cities in the United States and writes about trying to get by on a minimum wage. She barely makes it only by working two jobs and living in rooms without windows, motels without locks, and leaky trailers. I have come away from Ehrenreich's book vowing always to tip well, to be more conscious of how the invisible live, and to give when people ask. I have come away ready to write more letters to my state representatives. (Emphasis Added) • What she learns, and in turn, teaches is how hard it is to come home [such as it is] to write after working hard with few breaks and eating poorly. She also learns that in all of these jobs people look out for each other, and that even in these menial jobs, one must use her mind. "The first thing I discovered is that no job, no matter how lowly, is truly 'unskilled.'" • Nickel and Dimed is a consciousness raising event. (Helburn, Helen, 2002).

7. Reviewed by Judith Helburn • Posted on 02/21/2002 • Nonfiction: Memoir; Nonfiction DISCUSSION ______________________________________ The foregoing book review emphasizes my beliefs as it relates to the working poor being labeled as shiftless or lazy. Clearly indicated in the text A Framework for Understanding Poverty there are variables that can cause an individual to reside in the condition of poverty. One of those variables can be the loss of employment and the inability to find suitable employment to maintain a lifestyle that was once affordable during the previous employment(Payne, Ruby, 1996). The reviewer acknowledges that even if an individual in poverty works two jobs it is still difficult to elevate from the pitfalls of poverty. In this respect Enrenreich’sadventure into the world of poverty does allow an authentic view of the tribulations of people in poverty. The intolerable living conditions are not taken into consideration when an employer hires an individual that is part of the class of the working poor. Many unskilled job requires people skills and those are not compensated. For certain, being a waitress requires a decent level of communication skills as well as manners. However, these skills are not considered skills when it relates to compensation. When I dine out, I expect a competent and well mannered waitress and a clean eating environment. However, as evidenced in the writing of Enrenreich not all places that serve food are really clean and up to health standards. As such, I can appreciate Enrenreich sharing this experience with the readers of her book.

8. BOOK REVIEW An Analysis of Barbara Ehrenreich's Far-fetched Social Experiment With millions of people leaving welfare every year, is it possible for American citizens to provide for themselves on solely the income earned from a low-wage job? In Nickel and Dimed, Barbara Ehrenreich comes to the realization that although the jobs low-income workers take over require exhausting physical and mental efforts, their incomes still do not provide them with enough money to survive. She arrives at this assertion after placing herself in the situation millions of Americans live everyday. She works low-wage jobs earning six to eight dollars an hour, while trying to find acceptable shelter and survive in her new setting. As Ehrenreich begins her field research, her first task is to find affordable housing. Throughout her travels in the United States, however, she finds that housing offered to the low-income is abysmal, if not nonexistent. In Florida, the cheapest housing is forty-five minutes away from any job openings, forcing her to move into a dilapidated trailer park. Elsewhere her findings faired much worse, as she documented her stay in a cockroach-infested motel room in Minnesota with a door that had no lock.Getting a job is Ehrenreich's next step in her sociological experiment. In Florida, she worked as a waitress at a local restaurant. She experiences the demeaning relationship between the manager and his employees, the mental strain required to memorize orders and the physical burden of constantly being on the move. Furthermore, Ehrenreich realizes that to afford her decrepit housing, she still needs another job. Working two jobs increases the author's stress even more, which was best shown in Maine where she worked as a housekeeper at two separate businesses. In her job with one cleaning service, she is put through difficult physical labor for hours on end without breaks to the point that several of her colleagues have suffered injuries. Ehrenreich becomes gradually more disenfranchised with how employers treat their workers that she does not make it through the month she planned to work at Wal-Mart in Minnesota. (Park, Cullen, 2007). Nickled and Dimed: A Book Review May 23, 2007 By Cullen Park

9. Nickled and Dimed: A Book Review May 23, 2007 by Cullen Park • DISCUSSION • This review clearly pinpoints the type of discrimination that the working poor must tolerate in order to remain • employed and to pay their own expenses. Cullen indicates that the wages just are not enough. When the wages are obtained in some instances rent must be paid for substandard housing that may be infested with cockroaches and provides no security. The financial and living conditions of the working poor could only elevate the stress of a worker who is cheated and mistreated by an employer. Further, situations such as this can bring about violence in the workplace. The working poor in some situations are forced by laws such as the Welfare Reform Law to be stuck in employment that is demeaning, oppressive, low paying and can literally bring about a feelings of worthless. Ehrenreich, in all of her sincere and honest attempts to find employment that paid wages enough for her to make ends meet, was never accomplished. Instead she recognized the reality of the employment and lifestyle of people in poverty was undesirable from every aspect. • The Cullen’s review clearly infers that the Welfare Reform Laws are not to the advantage of the working poor. He emphasizes that even though millions of people are leaving the welfare, the intent of Welfare Reform, most are leaving without a reliable source of income. As a result, they are likely to be embedded deeper into the trenches of poverty. Further, working for minimum wage strategically places an individual barely above the poverty level. As such, there are people in need of assistance that will not qualify. In other words, from the Ehrenreich experiment it is reasonable to determine that the Welfare Reform Laws gave no authentic reason for an individual in poverty to be employed. If employment was obtained at minimum wage it did not necessarily secure the long term employment or provided enough for expenses. • Cullen states: “Ehrenreichbecomes gradually more disenfranchised with how employers treat their workers that she does not make it through the month she planned to work at Wal-Mart in Minnesota.” • This seems to be the norm for Ehrenreich during her entire experiment.. The employment and management at times • can be so disgusting and tainted with maleficent treatment towards an individual that it is reasonable for an individual • to quit the job rather than endure the ongoing de-humanizing affects of the job.

10. CONCLUSION _______________________________ Ehrenreich did a great service to society in general with her experiment. Experiencing living in poverty by diving into the world of poverty is commendable. I can appreciate her interest enough in this group of people to experience the difficulties and unfair treatment that people in poverty must endureand inform others. With the information she obtained from her experiment she should be in a position to encourage the powerful to rethink laws as it relates to employment and the working class individual. Her findings; however, are about what I expected – an undesirable place in society that no human should be subjected to. On the other hand, there are a variety of reasons and circumstance that causes people to be in poverty. Needless to say that the fact still remains that this group of people will require a substantial amount of help to elevate themselves above the poverty level. It is factual that people in poverty do not have the necessities to change their situation. They lack economic wealth, education and political power and therefore are not equipped with the necessary forces to create a path out of poverty. Without these essentials there is no path out of poverty.

11. References ______________________ • Ehrenreich, Barbara. (2001). Nickel and Dimed. NY, NY: Henry Holt and Company, LLC. • Helburn, Judith. (2002). Story Circle Book Reviews. Retrieved on April 18, 2009 from • http://www.storycircle.org/BookReviews/newsite/nonfiction_memoir.shtml • Institute for the Study of Civic Values. (1973). Welfare Reform. Retrieved on April 18, 2009 from • Tracking Welfare Reformhttp://www.libertynet.org/edcivic/welfref.html. • Johnson, Allan G. (2006). Privilege, Power, and Difference. NY, NY: McGraw-Hill. • Microsoft Office Online Clip Art. (2009). Retrieved on April 18, 2009 from http://office.microsoft.com/en- • us/clipart/default-aspx. • Park, Cullen. (2007). Nickled and Dimed: A Book Review. Retrieved on April 18 from Associated Content, http://www.associatedcontent.com/Subject/article/Nickel+and+Dimed+book+review • Payne, Ruby. (1996). A Framework for Understanding Poverty. Highland, TX: aha! Process, Inc. • Rector, Robert. (2004). Understanding Poverty and Economic Inequality in the United States. Retrieved on • April 18, 2009 from http://www.radicalmath.org/docs/ConservativeViewOnPoverty.pdf. • World Economic Forum. (2009). Global Gender Gap Report 2007. Retrieved on April 18, 2009 from http://www.weforum.org/en/initiatives/gcp/Gender%20Gap/index.htm.