English Literature

Barbara Ehrenreich (2001) investigates what it means to be truly poor in the book Nickel and Dimed On (Not) Getting by in America. She sheds her Phd and comfortable social status by working in various low-income jobs in Florida, Maine, and Minnesota. She cannot find a full-time job and so she takes in several jobs as restaurant server, nurse aide, hotel cleaner, and Wal-Mart employee. She realizes that all low-income workers are not that unskilled because of abilities demanded, such as having stamina and providing constant emotional labor. The main argument of the book is that low-income workers are modern-day slaves because of social inequality, repression from the corporate policies and practices, and the feeling of being trapped in a vicious cycle of poverty.

Low-income workers are modern-day slaves because of social inequality. Ehrenreich says, while working as a cleaner in a hotel See, I am the vacuum cleaner (74). Low-income workers are treated as vacuum cleaners because they are trained as means to profitable ends.  They are seen as vacuum cleaners because they are expected to be robots that can work all day for minimum pay or less. This means that low-income workers are like modern-day slaves, who are not valued as people, but as means to make money. Though low-income workers make some money because they render paid labor, their life is still not greatly better off because they can barely pay the rent and gas, as well as get a decent and healthy meal. Is this a socially equitable life Ehrenreich stresses There are no secret economics that nourish the poor on the contrary, there are a host of special costs. If you cant put up the two months rent you need to secure an apartment, you end up paying through the nose for a room by the week (27). And paying through the nose means working almost to the point of dying, and yet never having enough opportunities to survive social inequality.

Low-income workers are modern-day slaves because of the experience of repression from the corporate policies and practices. Ehrenreich argues Corporate decision makershave the perceived need for repressive management and intrusive measures like drug and personality testing (212). Corporate policies include smiling all day and subjecting oneself to laboratory tests, and corporate practices include not even being able to use the comfort room or speak to ones co-worker even during non-peak business hours.  This means that these workers are like slaves who are pushed to work to the limits by the management, without any real concern for their welfare and future.

Low-income workers are modern-day slaves because of the feeling of being trapped in a vicious cycle of poverty. Ehrenreich experiences firsthand what it means to choke in poverty by being poor herself. She complains about the cycle of poverty Something is wrong, very wrong, when a single person in good health, a person who in addition possesses a working car, can barely support herself by the sweat of her brow (199). Since a low-income worker cannot fully support herself, despite all efforts, she does not escape poverty. When she gets sick or her car breaks down, whatever savings she has goes down the drain. She is like a slave- with no future of opportunities, and no escape from her socio-economic imprisonment. Her low wages and socially unequal conditions keep her in the status quo as part of the working poor.

Barbara Ehrenreich gives examples and arguments about the low-income workers as modern-day slaves. For her, slaves and low-income workers have no differences in social status and experiences, except the latter are paid. This payment for their labor, however, is too meager to support a good life and to provide opportunities for economic growth. Like slaves, low-income workers are trapped in a life of poverty and social inequality, where repression is a norm and a decent meal is a dream.