Nickel and Dime, Barbara Ehrenreich free essay sample

In the expo, Nickel and Dime, Barbara Ehrenreich questioned the â€Å"uplifting benefits† of unskilled adults working in a low-wage economy. Ehrenreich’s undercover journalism was her scientific methodology of choice to capture firsthand the experience of poverty in order to prove her theory that it is mathematically impossible for welfare recipients to survive in the low-wage workforce. While following Barbara Ehrenreich journey in â€Å"Nickel and Dimed† I realized how certain aspects of a society can determine economic or personal success. Money and wealth are needed to accomplish many things that make a person powerful. These patterns of inequality structure society into different levels or social strata. Barbara Ehrenreich went out to prove that lower class individuals are struggling due to limited means and social inequality. Ehrenreich’s social-conflict theory implies that society is structured to benefit a few at the expense of the majority. This is the indicator as to why poverty is the factor in keeping the unskilled powerless. We will write a custom essay sample on Nickel and Dime, Barbara Ehrenreich or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page For instance, education is the form of power where money is needed to accomplish. Therefore, unskilled adults will never be able to progress in the jobs currently available to them. Barbara Ehrenreich first establish credibility of her knowledge of economic living conditions for poor adults to prove to her audience that she in fact has done her research on this topic. She researched that in 1998 the National Coalition for the Homeless reported that the necessary wage on average nationwide would be $8. 9 in order to afford a one bedroom apartment and that the odds of common welfare recipients landing a job that pays such a â€Å"living wage† were about 97 to 1. Ehrenreich experienced this statistic first hand when she set out job hunting in Key West, Florida where she applied to 20 different jobs, ranging from waiting tables to housekeeping. Though Baraba Ehrenreich shows obvious knowledge of her subject, she does not use substantial logic to her practice nor show instability in her research. Her methodologies and actions were some what unorthodox in practice. This did not seem to be a social experiment that was to recreate a poverty social scenario, that 4 million women were about to be forced experience. Ehrenreich admit that she had several advantages over her fellow co-workers. She used her ability to start off with a starting set of money to set up a job; meaning, that she had already set aside money to provide rent, deposit, and expenses such as food and gas. However, most low wage workers do not have this luxury. They are generally forced to work pay check to pay check and don’t have time to save up to store extra money for later. Ehrenreich’s scientific mathematical theory was flawed by her safety net. Ehrenreich should have presented her evidence topically; for example, she could have interviewed each of the single mother and manager she met along the way. Barbara Ehrenreich’s interaction with her co-workers was her strong points in this expo. They provided factual information on how people who earn a low income wage actually lived, and how troubled their lives actually were.