Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting by in America

The basic premise of this book is well founded. Ehrenreich decided that she wanted to conduct hands-on research on what it is like to be a lower-class American making ends meet. There's only one issue with this, and it's incredibly significant. She's an upper-class “bleeding heart socialist” living in Key West, Florida. While that's not inherently a non-starter, her biases consistently affect her descision-making. She says herself that she was unwilling to sacrifice any comforts of her wealthy lifestyle. She constantly allows herself to “cheat, as she puts it, by giving herself allowances and simply going back home whenever she feels like it. In my opinion, if she was really willing to actually conduct a worthwhile study, she should have gone all-in. As it stands, this is useless to me as it is a half-baked attempt geared towards out-of-touch upper class individuals.