Congratulations to author Barbara Ehrenreich for the 10th anniversary re-issuance of her classic study of the working poor, “Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting by in America.” Ehrenreich didn’t just write a theoretical study, she based the book on her experiences working as a waitress, a Wal-Mart “associate,” a nursing home aide and a maid employed by a cleaning service. At the time the book came out, Ehrenreich wrote a piece for us based on her experiences. She concluded:
…even in an economy celebrating unequaled prosperity, a person can work hard, full-time or even more, and not make enough to live on.
That was in 2001. The U.S. unemployment rate at mid-year was 4.5 percent. There were 150,400 home foreclosures in the first quarter of that year, as reported in Aug. 17, 2001, by The New York Times, which noted that home sales were on track to make 2001 the second-best year ever.
Today, the 2001 economy seems like a dream. America’s jobless rate has hovered between 9.1 percent and 10.1 percent for more than a year, with foreclosures in July alone totaling 221,763—and that figure is a 44-month low.
Working at low-wage jobs during the dot.com boom when the economy was buzzing, Ehrenreich wrote that while employed as a waitress,
The money I saved on rent was being burned up as gas for commuting. Without a well-stocked kitchen, I couldn’t make up big, economical dishes and freeze them ahead for the week, so I was spending too much on fast food. I began to realize it’s actually more expensive to be poor than middle class: You pay more for food, especially in convenience stores; you pay to get checks cashed; and you can end up paying ridiculous prices for shelter.
Today, millions upon millions of America’s working don’t even have a paycheck. Yet as Ehrenreich points out in an article on CNN today, the nation doesn’t just need jobs—some 12 million, in fact, to make up what’s been lost—it needs good jobs, jobs that support a family.
She also points out that the economic decline of America’s middle class began some 40 years ago, when fewer unionized workers resulted in an increasing gap between wages and productivity. The decline, accelerated in this latest recession, has been non-stop since the 1970s. Ehrenreich describes the “sad trajectory of the American middle-class spirit from the late ’70s to the present day.”
We’ve gone from Johnny Paycheck’s “Take This Job and Shove It” to begging the sleek-suited “job creators” for whatever they can throw our way.
Ten years ago, Ehrenreich stated that after her experiences as a low-wage worker,
if this were my real life, I would become an agitator in no time at all, or at least a serious nuisance.
Today, she sees such signs of hope, some “courageous exceptions” to the notion of groveling for corporate crumbs.
Forty-five thousand Verizon employees are walking picket lines to defend their hard-won union wages and benefits. Thousands of Wal-Mart employees have signed up as members of an association (“Our Walmart”) to demand respect from the company.
Even the most isolated and “invisible” workers—nannies and maids—are organizing themselves into a National Domestic Workers Alliance. As anyone in these groups could you tell: We don’t just need more jobs, we need more jobs that treat employees like humans and pay what you could actually live on.
