Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America

Have any of your assumptions or views about blue-collar workers changed after reading Nickel and Dimed? Address two to three moments where Ehrenreich’s study may have challenged your own assumptions about impoverishment.

What are your thoughts on the ethical implications of Ehrenreich’s journalistic methods? Do you believe that the experiment was conducted in accordance with the highest principles of honesty? Would you alter any aspects of the experiment and, if so, in what ways would you revise the experiment if you were to conduct it?

Housing is one of the biggest obstacles Ehrenreich deals with within the book. How has the housing crisis changed since the book was published in 2001? Have there been any improvements? In what ways is it worse now than it was then? What are the likely implications of these changes for workers now?