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I have forfeited conveniences like fresh produce, telephone service, and shoes that didn't tear up my feet. Ehrenreich, but your chronicle of suffering through the experiment of the blue collar lifestyle left me less than sympathetic. Sorry Ms. I have lived through pay periods where I had less than five dollars left after all of the bills were paid. I have lived in the low-rent, high-crime areas. I have driven the beater bombs. Welcome to earth. Sorry you didn't like it.
good book, gives u some idea of how people from lower economic standards live and have to make it with the little that they make, really enjoy it
In fact, I bought all my clothes (except for shoes) at used clothing stores. They don't want to go to school, even though there are Junior College training programs that would be free to them. When you're poor, that's not realistic. 4-pound bags of spaghetti, Top Ramen by the truckload (7 cents a pack back then), and giant cans of pasta sauce (about 99 cents for a can, which I saved in a margarine tub and used throughout the week). I know that the author is making a social commentary, but I know what it's like to make a lot of money, and I also know what it's like to live on $9,000 per year (in California, no less).
I even remember exactly what I bought. It's more damaging than anything else. I laughed out loud when she described a busser sucking "deliriously on an imaginary crack-pipe" when he was making fun of a particularly weasel-like manager.I think it's worth the purchase price, but the premise is not good. I drank Kool-aid (10 cents a pack) with very little sugar, or, if I was really going to splurge, I bought Crystal Light and made a gallon and a half out of a little tub that was supposed to be for 2 quarts.
I think that the biggest social commentary (that the author missed) was the way that poor people FEEL. If you feel like a worthless person, then that is the reality that you create. I had one saucepot, and I bought my work pants at thrift stores. Let's just say I wasn't very healthy back then. That these men and women at the bottom feel like they should remain where they are.
I read this entire book in one sitting, because it really is well-written and funny. The ones that are stuck in that cycle of poverty always feel hopeless. They never feel like there's something better out there. I think it's more an issue of self-esteem than anything else. I didn't own a car and I always had roommates. Even when I was scraping by and living in the dirtiest slum apartment on earth (a broken bedroom window patched by duct-tape and there were dead cockroaches in the bathtub every morning), I never felt like that was where I was going to stay. When I was in my 20s, I was DIRT poor, worked two jobs (sometimes three), and I lived off of $25 of food per week.
Conclusion: This book is worth reading, it's very well-written and the author makes some very funny observations. But I made it and put myself through school (without loans). I think the author's issues with housing have more to do with the fact that she was unwilling to live with someone else. That's the REAL tragedy here. But read between the lines.Christy Pinheiro, Author of: *The Step-By-Step Guide to Self-Publishing for Profit*
Great book(used for summer project)Came within delivery date, hardly any damage to it.Nothing wrong with used books, no need to buy one that is perfect.
Sure, her back hurt a little and she may have been "offended" by drug tests, but it is not even remotely a taste of what it is like to work 2 jobs and not have a house to go home too. This book was a waste of my time. She wanted to go rescue her co-workers from low paying jobs, but she worked and spoke with the mindset of a well off White woman who is in these situations only temporarily. The time she spent working on this book gave her BARELY a superficial knowledge of what it is like to live on or below minimum wage. She started out with a chunk of money to help her through hard times and constantly dipped into it yet acting like she had to work hard every hour to earn it all back. I doubt she came back to her real life and stopped hiring maids or even fought her change. Poor book, her experience was quite superficial and I am surprised so many people liked it.
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