Reading Response: Evaluation from Nickel and Dimed, Barbara Ehrenreich

In her evaluation chapter, Ehrenreich sums up everything she learned in her minimum-wage-work experience, what the problems with the system are, and how they might be remedied. Unfortunately, not much of what she says is anything profound, and she has almost a self-righteous, arrogant twinge in her voice.

However, I was intrigued and enlightened by how she described the working poor in the last section of the chapter. "When someone works for less pay than she can live on -- when, for example, she goes hungry so that you can eat more cheaply and conveniently -- than she has made a great sacrifice for you, she has made of a gift of some part of her abilities, her health, and her life." Though I always try to treat everyone with respect and kindness (chatting with and thanking the cafeteria and janitorial workers, cleaning up after myself, etc.,) this quote very poignantly brings the state of our society into perspective. The work that minimum-wage workers do is not done because it is "all they're worth" or because we "deserve" their assistance. On the contrary, we are the recipients of a gift, and if we started acting like it, maybe things would actually change.