AP English: Nickel & Dimed Evidence

There is a sufficient amount of evidence for Ehrenreich’s point in Nickel and Dimed. She describes life when working under minimum wage and how difficult it is to survive. It’s so much easier to spend money than earn it. When Barbara was in Minnesota she ended up only getting a check for $42 and spent $500 that week. She spent so much more than she had ended up earning (through a personal experience to touch the reader). She told of a time where she and her fellow employees were hungry, yet they all together couldn’t sum up even two dollars. Four people couldn’t put two dollars together! Or the time when she worked in Wal-Mart and one of the employees couldn’t even afford a stained, clearanced Wal-Mart shirt, after her employee discount. Barbara is smart and has education background, so through personal stories and backgrounds she touched the reader. Because if she was struggling in a minimum wage job, just imagine those around her who didn’t have an education background like she did, etc. Barbara didn’t look at the other people as bad people; she just saw them as mesmerized by their own goals and money. They had their eye on the prize and didn’t take in account how their employees are doing. She looked at people in higher class sort of oblivious, because they had what they wanted. The more successful have everything because of what the minimum wage workers do. She didn’t diss or negetate them, she just looked at them as oblivious and not as appreciative. But the people on her side won’t take a stand to the low income they have. They are so timid and feel that they can only impress their boss when there is so much more out in the world. (Holly wants to impress Ted so much; she hardly eats because she can’t afford it and will try to work with a broken ankle).