Nickel and Dimed

As a sociologist, I've found Nickel and Dimed resonates with the diverse set of students, most of whom are struggling to understand their place in the economy. Although the popular discourse suggests that we all have equal opportunity for a good life, students often sense either that they are extra lucky, in terms of access to financial resources, without being able to ascribe that access fully to their own hard work; or that they are working like crazy and still struggling with their finances (Ehrenreich). Ehrenreich provides a structural context for us to begin to understand that our work ethic only partially explains our financial status; access to good-paying work is a vital ingredient, too. Now, as I hear politicians debate our welfare policies, I wonder why we're not talking more about raising the minimum wage and creating paid work that can honestly support people who are working hard at jobs.

I think the subject of Nickel and Dimed is even more relevant today than it was at the time it was published. When life or livelihood take a down turn, supports are increasingly difficult to obtain. What I hope might come of it - a better understanding of conditions people face, a change in the way we treat each other, brainstorming on how to provide better financial and emotional support.

The Nickel and Dimed book should help develop our empathy and understanding towards the less fortunate in our midst. This understanding can help us think about policies to make our community and state a vital and healthy place to live for all its citizens, poor and non-poor. Part of the debate, political and otherwise, in recent times, has been around whether or not it is class warfare to ask those who are at the top of the financial pyramid to pay a higher percentage of their income than they are presently paying to balance governmental budgets at every level. The alternative to the foregoing seems to be to cut welfare programs which impact mostly those who dwell at the bottom of the welfare ladder and to blame those persons for economic woes of the economy. We need to have discussions at the community and national level which will raise consciousness about how such action by government to reduce those programs impact the everyday life of those who hold up the pyramid. Working with such people at The Gathering Place here in Brunswick has renewed my understanding of the everyday struggle that is the life of the homeless and marginalized people who live in our midst. We need to talk and we need to act.

In the past few months, I have read many articles that discuss the class warfare in America today. I am interested in what others have to say about the growing gap between the top one percent and the working poor, and I think that Nickel and Dimed provides the Bowdoin and Brunswick community with the opportunity to begin a discussion about class and economic differences. I hope ...