Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America
Barbara Ehrenreich · first published 2001 · ISBN 9780805063882
Ehrenreich worked minimum-wage jobs as a waitress, maid, and retail clerk to test whether wages could support actual life. She lived in motels and cheap rentals while making poverty money. The book documents what she actually encountered, not what economic theory predicts.
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The Best Books About Poverty and Inequality
Published in 2001 and still holds up completely. Ehrenreich went undercover to answer a real question, and the answer troubles anyone who reads carefully. It's reporting disguised as memoir.