N and D Questions (1)
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Uploaded by MasterElementWren43
Lopez 1
Isaac Lopez
Professor Naiyer
ENG 1103
19 March 2024
“Nickel and Dimed (2011 Version)” Discussion Questions
1. How has poverty been redefined post-Nickel and Dimed?
After reading Nickel and Dimed, my perspective on poverty has completely changed.
There were many surprising instances and experiences I never once thought I would come
across. In reality, the lives of these low-wage workers were a lot more complex and difficult than
I previously anticipated. Many factors contributed to this such as insufficient pay, lack of
affordable housing, mental health, physical labor, the hiring process, and limited access to
healthcare. The more I learn about these hardships the more I realize that I’ve completely come
to underestimate the perceptions of poverty and how it can detrimentally affect your life.
2. How would Ehrenreich’s experiment be different in 2011? Would she
“cheat” more? Why? How?
I believe that Ehrenreich would have cheated more if this experiment had been conducted
in 2011. This is specifically because of the 2008 financial crisis. During this time, numerous
individuals lost their jobs along with their homes. As a result, there was more competition for
low-wage positions. The cost of living in addition to other factors has also increased, therefore
making it a lot more difficult to achieve a somewhat stable life. Your economic status was
always fluctuating, it was never stable. Overall, Ehrenreich would come across a lot more
struggles and hardships, ultimately leaving her with no choice but to cheat a lot more.
Lopez 2
3. What are the “already poor”’s coping strategies? Did they already employ
these in N and D to some extent?
Yes, there were various coping strategies that Ehrenreich observed throughout her
experiment very similar to the “already poor” coping strategies. Some of these strategies can be
described as sharing rooms with multiple roommates, using government-funded programs, using
over-the-counter drugs to stay work-ready, and even resorting to crimes such as Stu, who was
caught stealing cash from a cash register to pay for the crack that he had ordered at the
restaurant.
4. How has the government criminalized poverty? How are poor families
“abused”?
One way the government has criminalized poverty is by implementing drug testing
requirements for many job opportunities. This is mainly due to the intensity of physical labor
demanded by many low-wage jobs, because of the intensity, many individuals are compelled to
take over-the-counter medication just to be able to keep up with their workload. Additionally, the
government also treats families very poorly. This can be seen when Ehrenreich tried calling for
access to free food. For instance, Ehrenreich states, “ Bottom line: $7.02 worth of food acquired
in seventy minutes of calling and driving, minus $2.80 for the phone calls” (Ehrenreich 34). This
highlights the difficulty when seeking some type of assistance.
5. Ehrenreich contrasts her “standard liberal wish list” with a “modest and
more challenging” list of solutions. What are the similarities and/or
differences between the 2 lists? Is one list more practical than the other? How so?
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One similarity both these solutions hold is that their overall goal is to ultimately reduce poverty
and social inequality. They both offer insight into how this can be accomplished whether it is an
increased access to essential resources or more opportunities for those who are at a disadvantage.
I believe that the “standard liberal wish list” is more short-term in terms of practicality. This is
because of how easily attainable these solutions are following the current political and economic
system. The “modest and more challenging” is better long term because it takes more time for
foundational changes to occur. These changes would probably yearn for affordable housing,
universal healthcare, and better-paying jobs which would once again, take a significant amount
of societal and political transformation to implement. Overall, the “modest and more
challenging” solution might be more practical as it addresses the systematic issues that will
define what poverty will look and be like in the future.
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