Nickel and dimed

             Nickel and Dimed .
             Frederick Taylor, known as the father of scientific management, takes responsibility for the change in the American workplace organization throughout the twentieth century. Taylor believes that power must be redistributed within the workplace by dumbing down the work and shifting those with intelligence from the work shop to a higher level, leading to mass production. This principle opens the doors for foreign immigrants, African Americans and others with little knowledge or skill who now have an opportunity to enter the work industry and better their standard of living. However, these newly employed workers must go through the difficulties of living on a low- wage of six to seven dollars an hour, while being treated harshly and scrutinized for their every move by their employers. .
             Barbara Ehrenreich, the author of Nickel and Dimed, raises awareness of the lives of low-wage, poverty stricken people being pushed into the labor Market by welfare reform, by highlighting the struggles they encounter daily. She gives up the comforts that come with being a well known journalist, by finding out for herself how many of Americans can survive on near minimum wage. Before searching the want ads for a selection of minimum-wage jobs, Barbara first decides to find a place to live. One of the first things she learns is that "trailer trash was now a demographic to aspire to." (pg. 12) She realizes that earning seven dollars an hour practically limits her to a trailer home with no air conditioning, no fans, no television and no kitchen. Ehrenreich and upper class America have always thought of roadside motels as overnight stops for those traveling however, they are oblivious to the fact that a high percentage of the American population live in these unfortunate conditions yearly. With wages too low and rent far too high, lower class .
             workers making seven dollars an hour come across many difficulties in finding affordable housing.