Getting By in America
In her book, Nickel and Dimed, Barbara Ehrenreich goes undercover on a project to find the reality of getting by on low-wage jobs like housekeeping and waitressing. During this whole project, she learns how much she needs to sacrifice in order to pay for rent, food, and other utilities. She moves from city to city to find a decent place to stay where the rent is not high and where she can find a job. At the end of her book, she finally discovers that "no job, no matter how lowly, is truly ‘unskilled’." (193) In reality, many people struggle every day of their lives trying to get by so that they have a place to stay and have food to feed themselves or their families.