In Nickel and Dimed: Not Getting by in America, Barbara Ehrenreich offers an accurate and in-depth view of how the bottom of the social strata lives, those who earn live by doing minimum wage jobs. While some discrepancies will be discussed, Barbara provides untold insight into individuals living below the poverty line. This article will critically analyze Nickel and Dimed: On Not Getting By in America, discuss two major themes of the book, and finally connect them to some points from Political Science 204. Ehrenreich begins his experiment in Key West, near where he usually lives (Ehrenreich 25). Working as a waitress in a low-end restaurant, she quickly realizes that to have enough money to make ends meet, you usually have to have two jobs, and she soon takes another one. Ultimately, he ends up leaving one, realizing that he doesn't have the physical capacity to work consecutive shifts. The next phase of her undercover work takes her to Portland, Maine, where she begins to see how badly people are treated in that country. the lower class. Working as a housekeeper, she is despised by others in society and treated even worse by her boss, who completely extorts her fellow workers. Here he realizes that people are completely stuck in the work they do and have to work every day, just to make ends meet (Ehrenreich 119). Eventually her travels take her to Minneapolis, Minnesota, where Ehrenreich works as a sales clerk at a Walmart, the largest private employer. Here he struggles to find a place to live and, in the end, has to live in a very expensive motel. She is, however, offered the highest payment option of $10 an hour, but declines because she believes... halfway down the paper... in fact, that low-income people are actually hard workers and they are stuck in their economic-social class. Finally, this document discusses how it relates to our PS 204 class and how you can connect the ideas from this class with those in the book. Issues such as equality mentioned in the book and others such as voter participation, which was an issue raised by this author, are important issues in our country today. These issues need to be addressed so that people like Gail and Holly don't have to worry if they get injured at work, because they know they will be taken care of. Confucius says it best: “In a well-governed country, poverty is something to be ashamed of. In a poorly governed country, wealth is something to be ashamed of." (listed site). Our country has the ability to help these people, the question is, what will YOU do about it?