Working Class: Barbara Ehrenreich discusses how she taught herself to survive on less than a living wage

From: The Independent Weekly | Date: May 15, 2002| Author: | Copyright information

Have you ever heard someone tell a homeless man or a ?welfare queen? to get a job? As Barbara Ehrenreich?s remarkable, bestselling book Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America shows, getting a job is the easy part?making ends meet, on the other hand, is an entirely different matter. Sixty percent of American workers make less than $14 an hour, and some of these people are real-life charity cases and shelter dwellers. It?s nearly impossible to make a decent living when your income is around minimum wage. Ehrenreich spent an entire year conducting an experiment of sorts?she worked ...

Read all of this article with a FREE trial to HighBeam Research

Related newspaper, magazine, and trade journal articles from HighBeam Research

(Including press releases, facts, information, and biographies)

Most of us are working class - and we know it Intellectuals say there's no working class, but this hasn't yet got through to the working class
; ...of the population regards itself as "working class", which surprised many academics, as they've been telling us for years the working class doesn't exist. They must be as confused...based on a misunderstanding over what `working class' meant." In other words, intellectuals...
Working class hero is something to be; Two thirds of the British adult population now claim to feel `working class and proud of it' - a figure that has risen considerably in the last three years. So what is the big attraction? Lesley Richardson reports.(Features)
; Byline: Lesley Richardson THE working class hero has captured the heart of Britain...British population claim to feel ``working class and proud of it'' - a figure that has...enough as more people claim to feel working class the number of people who fall into...
Forget the classless society - two thirds of us now say we're working class and proud
; ...British population considers itself more working class than it did 12 years ago. A survey...more than two-thirds of people feel "working class and proud of it" in spite of all the...whether they considered themselves working class said "Yes". The unexpected results...
'Worth our salt': Australian working class women's poetry.
; ...Lorde (2) The struggles and triumphs of working class women are rarely represented in the...vital to include examples of female working class creativity in any discussion of artistic...outline the particular difficulties that working class women may encounter when trying to...
'Now we are all working class...'
; ...is having none of it. "I have always been working class and remain working class," Gilchrist said. "My mother was a war widow...never seen it that way. I don't say I am working class as a badge of honour - that's the way it...
UP THE WORKERS; Now 68 per cent of Brits say they are working class.(News)
; ...are proud to think of themselves as working class, it was revealed yesterday. And more...regarded as middle class admitted they had working class leanings, according to a survey. The...cent agreed with the statement: I'm working class and proud of it. That compares with...
The middle classes who say they are now working class.
; ...of adults now claim that they are 'working class and proud of it'. And 55 per cent of...seen as middle class admit to having 'working-class feelings'. Research by Mori based on...sentiment: 'At the end of the day, I'm working class and proud of it.' This compared to...
The rise and rise of the working class
; ...Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, being working class has never been so pukka. Where once...proletarian upbringing, today, being working class is not only acceptable - it's positively...thirds of British adults now claim to be working class. The Social Values poll found that...
E. P. Thompson and radical Romanticism.(The Making of the English Working Class)(Critical essay)
; ...have reread The Making of the English Working Class and numerous other texts by Thompson...Thompson's The Making of the English Working Class is incalculably rich in narrative...Thompson's The Making of the English Working Class (1963), one of the founding texts of...
Segmenting Social Classes: The Working Class
; ...Specifically, this issue will examine the Working Class, but first let's consider how social...about which occupations comprise the Working Class. Some participants included managers...jobs.6 Social Class theory defines the Working Class as "people who earn their living by...