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Ehrenreich Working Poor

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The working poor do not have themselves to blame for their failure to get a job, according to the author of Bait and Switch, Barbara Ehrenreich. Despite going to college, getting career coaches, and having experience, Ehrenreich said that people still have trouble getting jobs in today’s society, which she explores in her book, Bait and Switch. Ehrenreich spoke Tuesday at Ken’s Bookshop in Alma about her new book and the research she did for it. In addition, she spoke out about economic hardships and ways we can make it easier to help the working poor. In order to understand the struggle that people go through and to make her book more realistic, Ehrenreich went undercover as someone who was searching for a job. What she discovered was an …show more content…

“I had a tailored shirt with a tailored jacket, and both the shirt and the jacket had pointy lapels. Well, as he told me, in effect, pointy lapels frighten men. I don’t know what they think we’ll do with them, but there it was.” Even after all of her career counseling and preparation for the corporate world, Ehrenreich still struggled to find a job. “The strangest thing to me, though, about my experiences with the corporate culture here is the kind of mysticism that pervades it,” Ehrenreich said. “Again and again in these networking groups, bootcamp interviewer, we were told that everything that happens to you is because of your attitude.” She could not believe that this kind of thing was being said to people who had lost their jobs, almost like the unemployed were being blamed for their own hardships. She said that when this happens it is “victim-blaming of a particularly ugly kind.” To add to the misfortune of being unemployed, many people without jobs also do not have the “luxury” of health insurance, Ehrenreich pointed out. She said that with most corporate jobs, they get health insurance as part of their benefits, but that does not mean they get to keep it

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365 Words | 2 Pages

Thesis: I believe that Ehrenreich’s thesis is that no matter how hard you work or how chipper you act, it is nearly impossible to make a living for oneself in minimum wage conditions such as those of her coworkers. Narration: Narration is present on page 765 where through the narrator we are told Gail’s story about how her husband died and her what has led up to her current situation. Report: Paragraph 2 is an example of report writing where she details the types of housing in the area and the possible houses she can afford because she is being illustrative and informational about the topic of real estate in Key West. Analysis: The section on pages 771-772 is an analysis because she is breaking down the housing situations of her coworkers based upon her prediction of their salaries.

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527 Words | 3 Pages

In a New York Times article, “Too Poor to Make the News,” author Barbara Ehrenreich focuses on the impact the recession has caused to the lives of the working poor. She begins her article by describing how the newly group, known as Nouveau poor, have to give up valuables where as the working poor have to give up housing, food, and prescription medicines. Ehrenreich’s purpose is to inform her readers who are blessed enough not to suffer like the working poor. Barbara Ehrenreich’s article examines the impacts the recession has on the lives of the working poor, by demonstrating pathos, and makes readers aware of the sufferings the poor have to face. Barbara Ehrenreich examines the aspects that are impacting the working poor from the recession.

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2296 Words | 10 Pages

The American Dream is almost purely run by structural forces, in her perspective, that are constantly attempting to impede the middle class’ ability for upward mobility. Those who are impoverished are there because of their surroundings, the institutions that shape their lives and therefore, they simply cannot find any way out of the poverty trap in which they have found themselves. While Ehrenreich was conducting her case study, she attempted to determine if the American Dream was by attempting to immerse herself in the culture of the poor. She only did so partially due to several stipulations that she set for the experiment as she stated that she would not live in a shelter (Shepard did), that she would not get rid of her vehicle and rely on public transportation (Shepard also did this); however, she did note that even for her, being partially immersed as she was, still found there to be not much difference between herself and those that worked around. She believed, from her experiences, that the social structure of the employment opportunities, was a systematic way to dehumanize the workers.

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381 Words | 2 Pages

Jack Nguyen AP English 3 30, July 2015 Nickel and Dimed Rhetorical Strategies and Notes Thesis: Ehrenreich’s personal use of varied rhetorical strategies allowed her to divulge the working conditions and struggles of the poverty-stricken class to the readers in order to provoke them to realize that something has to be done about poverty.. First Body: What: Allusion Pg. 2, Logos Pg. 37. How & Effect: Ehrenreich uses these personal, rhetorical strategies based on her experiences as a low-wage worker in the poor working class. The effect is that Ehrenreich is able to show the readers the conditions in which the impoverished work in and the daily obstacles that they face in life; also there is an appeal to logic and a reference of a poverty idiom. Why: Ehrenreich is deliberately using these rhetorical strategies to incite the readers about the fact that changes need to be done to poverty because it is a detrimental thing to society.

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652 Words | 3 Pages

As a reader reads Barbara Ehrenreich’s book Nickel and Dimed on (Not) Getting by in America, they get an insight on what it is like to live a low income life. Ehrenreich proposes the argument in the introduction that poverty is a serious matter and just because one has a job does not mean they are not considered poor. She wants to persuade us to realize that American is not the land of opportunity as promised and portrayed and there are regular people who are struggling to live a comfortable life. Throughout her book she mentions her experiences with living on minimum wage, the hiring process, and how she felt being put in that position. After reading Ehrenreich’s book I am thoroughly persuaded.

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1121 Words | 5 Pages

I viewed Frontline a documentary series, which episode was entitled Poor Kids. The frontline personnel spent time with three children Kailey, Johnny, and Britany along with their families as they all struggle financially. We perceive a glimpse of what it is like to live below the poverty line in America through a child’s eyes. While observing the documentary, I became consciously aware that children who are considered poor or living below the poverty line were more mindful of the responsibilities of life. The children were worrisome of the lack of employment for their parents, bills, and in Britney’s case; how they would accommodate their way of living to support a new addition to the family.

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945 Words | 4 Pages

Shirley Chisholm became the first African American woman elected in the U.S. Congress and run for president as a Democratic candidate. Despite losing the presidential nomination Shirley Chisolm continued to be inspiration for young African American women across the United States. Chisholm was a great orator that used her voice to improve racial inequality and women rights for all Americans. Her speech given on the floor of the House of Representatives in 1968 will forever immortalize Shirley Chisholm’s dedication to improving human rights. The use of fallacies throughout her speech were used to captivate her audience and bring attention to the injustice that was going on in America.

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From the very start in the essay’s thesis, Ehrenreich uses the image of “chin-strokers” and “morality-mavens” to describe her opposition to the pretentious, lowering self-proclaimed experts who suggest that more formality is necessary (Ehrenreich par. 1). These negative visual metaphors make the reputation of the opposite argument less appealing to the general audience and thus strengthening her point. Also in the first paragraph, the colloquial language in the essay was established

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876 Words | 4 Pages

Argumentative Text Essay In the book Nickel and Dimed, written by Barbara Ehrenreich, the author argues how challenging it is to live in a life of poverty. To prove to herself as well as others that this statement is accurate, she makes the decision to experience this lifestyle firsthand by taking low-wage jobs and recording the results. Ehrenreich took on jobs including a maid service, waitressing, and assisting the nursing home to make enough money for a place to sleep and food to eat. The work’s central argument is the fact that minimum and low wage workers face a myriad of difficulties in getting by in America; they receive very low pay, harsh treatments from their employers, and the inability to have an actual life.

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818 Words | 4 Pages

C. Wright Mills explains the sociological imagination works between “the personal troubles of milieu” and “the public issues of social structure” (Mills 2014, 4). Personal troubles and public issues go hand-in-hand, but are yet very different. Troubles have to do with an individual standpoint, and how a person’s immediate relation with others have an effect on them. C. Wright Mills states “A trouble is a private matter: values cherished by an individual are felt by him/her to be threatened” (Mills 2014, 4). Mills uses a wonderful example in the book and explains that if we are to understand these terms we can consider unemployment as an example.

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721 Words | 3 Pages

1984 Synthesis Essay Poverty negatively influences how the minds of people work in the world. The fact that poverty exists itself, obstructs people from changing their circumstances in what is known as “the cycle of poverty.” The lower class is incredibly disadvantaged in that it lacks the necessary social and economic resources needed to increase chances of social mobility. In return, the absence of these resources may increase poverty. Therefore, the lower class is unable to change its situation because the majority believes that any efforts to climb the social ladder is highly inefficient.

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1171 Words | 5 Pages

She uses her own experiences as well as television shows to support her claim throughout her essay. Hooks establishes her credibility quite quickly because she was an individual that experienced the misinterpretations first hand. She uses many different techniques to establish the reader’s attention. The intended readers for her essay are individuals whom are making false assumptions about poor people and families and for the poor themselves. She hopes by drawing light upon the topic that things will change for the

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552 Words | 3 Pages

No Nickels or Dimes To Spare In the book, Nickel and Dimed, Barbara Ehrenreich writes the story, “Serving in Florida.” She describes her experience living as an undercover waitress when in reality she’s a journalist for culture and politics with a doctorate in biology. Ehrenreich experiences trying to survive on multiple low income jobs to understand what it is like to be in their shoes instead of being apart of the higher middle class.

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453 Words | 2 Pages

Joining the military is a very big decision and it takes a lot of time and thinking to know if it’s right for you. When you join the military you are giving up your rights. Not all of your rights but a very significant amount of them that can and will change you drastically. There are many things you should know and consider before you make that decision to join. When you join the military you are not the only person affected, you affect your whole family and you need to understand you will be gone for lengthy periods of time.

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1170 Words | 5 Pages

The Truth About Poverty “Poverty is like punishment for a crime you didn't commit” this quote was said by Mahatma Gandhi and it relates so well with this article “It is Expensive To Be Poor”, answer the question yourself, Is it expensive to be poor? This article is titled like that to get the audience's attention early and have them thinking ahead of reading. The author Barbara Ehrenreich is building a pre thought when she does this which helps support her claim. “It is Expensive To Be Poor” by Barbara Ehrenreich is an article posted on “The atlantic” “which is where you can find your current news and analysis on politics, business, culture, and technology”. Knowing what “The Atlantic” offers for readers this gives Ehrenreich a detailed look at who she is writing to.

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