| By ,
on 24-07-2002 00:49
|
Views : 1572  |
Favoured : 67 |
Published in : , Reviews |
Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America
By Barbara Ehrenreich.
Metropolitan Books
$23.00
220 Pages
"No one ever said that you could work harder-harder than you ever thought possible -and still find yourself sinking deeper into poverty and debt." Barbara Ehrenreich.
Reviewed By Khalil Abdel Alim
The next time you shop in Wal-Mart or any large department store, the "associate" in a store uniform who you ask for help may be off the clock and required to help you without compensation, as some stores require them to keep their uniform on and assist any customer until they clear the store at the end of their shift. Also, maid services dont get paid half-hours of work at the beginning and end of the day when the workers refill work buckets and other preparations for the next day. These are some of the many illegal, immoral, exploitative practices engaged in by Wal-Mart and other stores as uncovered and written about by writer Barbara Ehrenreich. To research for the book she actually worked in hotels, restraints, nursing homes, private homes, and a Wal-Mart and lived on the wages she earned like any other worker.
She describes the condition of the working poor who are often also homeless who work for minimum wage as " the hopelessness of wage slaves."
She describes nightmarish conditions in low rent housing and in cheap motels.
The Washington-based Economic Policy Institute reported in 1998 that 30 percent of the workforce toil for less than $8.00 an hour.
The search for these low paying jobs is like playing catch; as catch can be a matter of being in the right place at the right time. Employers regularly fund job wanted ads whether they have openings or not as the turn over is frequent. She tells of abusive and oppressive managers whose only job often is to see that these employees are never idle. Even in slow periods they find busy work to be done.
One of the workers greatest challenges is finding affordable housing. Many live in trailers, double up with another worker, some in cars and vans, or in motels paying as much as $60 a night. She reports that the National Coalition for the Homeless reported in 1997 that nearly one-fifth of all homeless people (in 29 cities across the nation) are employed in full or part-time jobs.
Ms. Ehrenreich indicates that some employers dont have much concern for employees need for bathroom breaks and that before 1998 there were no federal regulations mandating them. She also says that low-wage American workplace conditions affect ones self-esteem and renders one rather docile.
Many workers find that they cannot make ends meet with one job-in 1996 7.8 million men and women worked at multiple jobs-6.2 percent of the workforce.
The author reports that a maid service for which she worked required the maids to scrub floors the old fashion way," on their hands and knees, although authorities advise against employers making that request in that it is regarded as degrading. Ehrenrich, the author of several other books, writes in a very lucid easy style with a down to earth sense of humor. Were the conditions and lifestyles she describes not so depressing it could be called a pleasant book.
She describes the "Big Brother" styled pre-employment personality test that have no right or wrong answers but require answers that show slavish obedience and conformity of the test taker. She also writes of pervasive pre-employment drug test whose effectiveness is demonstrated by federal government results of testing 29,000 people costing $ll.7 to find 153 positive tests calculating to $77,000 per positive test. According to the author, low wage and medium wage workers leave many of their civil liberties, freedom of speech, and much of what America stands for outside the doors of their workplace.
She claims that Wal-Mart has a regimented cult-like culture-"the Cult of Sam"-for Sam Walton the founder. Wal-Mart was once accused by one of its home state of Arkansas state Senators of paying salaries so low that its employees had to seek welfare from the state. She also says that Wal-Mart does not pay overtime and that mangers have admitted altering timecards to remove records of overtime worked. Wal-Mart has been successfully sued in several states for this practice.
Sprinkled through out the book are examples of personal introspection in which the author reveals from her experience the effect that oppressive work conditions have on the human psychic and how it effects their relations with others. She points out that biological studies with animals being forced into subordinate statues within their social system adapt their brain chemistry accordingly and become "depressed" in human ways and become anxious and withdrawn. She points out that "workplace authoritarianism", that low wage earners are subjected to have the self image damaged by intrusive drug test, constant surveillance, and being "reamed out" by managers, helps keep wages low because the workers low self esteem makes them think they are not worth more.
The book is not merely anecdotal, it is well documented with scholarly and government reports as well as interviews with economists and other business and social authorities. All middle-upper class citizens to see the social/political time bomb that lurks in our society where the poor and deprived are all but hidden from view should read her final chapter, "Evaluation".
-30-
Last update : 24-07-2002 00:49
|
|
|
Users' Comments  |
|
Average user rating
 (0 vote)
|
|
Add your comment
|
