Nickel And Dimed

2. Were your perceptions of the blue collar Americans transformed or reinforced by nickel and dimmed? Have your notions of poverty and prosperity changed since reading the book? What about your own treatments of waiters, maids, salespeople?

My perception of the blue collar Americans was transformed as a result of the book. Previously I had always felt that is someone wanted to find a job, they could. If a hard working American went out into the work force looking for a job that could support them, then they would certainly find one. However after reading the book, I now understand that it is not always this easy. Sometimes the jobs that are offered to the blue collar Americans are not good enough to support themselves or their families. I am also a lot more understanding of what it is to be poor. I see how difficult it is for the poor, and how much easier it is for the people who prosper in society. Poor people have practically no opportunities to succeed in life. They have no social mobility and it is nearly impossible for them to find a job that will allow them to move up on the social ladder. For example, working in a fast food restaurant puts a limit on how much money you can make. Even if you become a manager or assistant manager of a fast food restaurant it is still not going to be a significant salary raise. My own treatment of waiters, maids, and salespeople has been reinforced. Even though I always knew that it is hard for these people to work in the jobs that they have, I have even more respect for them then I ever have had before. I see how waiters have so much responsibility that is not always in their control. The difference between the haves and have-nots has only grown as time passes. The rich and the poor have become more and more disconnected with each other. Drawing some references from the book, one of many results of this disconnection is that the rich, and also the middle class, are often oblivious as to what amount of sweat and heartache went into their nicely polished hotel rooms, their neatly arranged retail stores, their clean homes, or their food being brought to their restaurant table.

3. How do booming national and international chains- restaurants, hotels, retail outlets, cleaning services, and eldercare facilities - affect the treatment and aspirations of low-wage workers? Consider how market competition and the push for profits drive the nickel and dimming of America's lowest paid.

These booming national and international chains affect the treatment and aspirations of low wage workers because since these low paid workers are so easy to replace they end up getting no say in their working conditions or wages. If they argue with their employers, then the risk getting fired simply because it is easier for them to fire the employer then to have to give the worker any rights. This puts a really large limit on what these low paid workers can acquire. They end up not being able to have good working conditions or proper jobs. We've created a society of cheap consumerism, a cheap economy, cheap cities, cheap buildings, and cheap lives. In order to drive this system, we need cheap labor. Those corporate profits don't come from a genie in the bottle. The wages that they earn are insufficient to obtain life's basic necessities. Everything costs money, your shelter so you can rest and go to your job, your clothes so you can go to your job, your food so that you can survive to go to your job, to earn the money needed to pay for your clothes, your shelter, and buy your food, so that you can go to your job. One wonders how many companies would buckle under the stress of increasing the wages of their workers to this level. So many of them, especially the big chains, such as Wal-Mart, depend upon that narrow profit margin of theirs, so that they can build