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 Nickel and Dimed - BARB is a snob 
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When I started reading this book I thought I was really going to like it. I admired some to the things that this journalist did. But the more I read the more I started to think , "Who does this woman think she is?" I finished reading the book today, and from what I gathered she is a pot smoking atheist, feminist with a Ph.D. who wouldn't be caught dead wearing clothes from Wal-Mart. She mentions Lord and Taylor, so I assume that she buys her clothing at this and other similarly over priced stores. I didn't appreciate the comment about the Russ and Bobbie Brooks line of clothing in Wal-Mart which she says "are seemingly aimed at pudgy fourth grade teachers with important barbeques to attend." She obviously doesn't have much respect for educators, even though she has spent a good deal of time being educated. She must not be used to getting things on her fancy clothes. I teach first grade and I often sit in the floor or get milk, vomit, snot, or whatever on me. I love my job, and this is just one of the occupational hazzards, but it wouldn't be practical to spend a fortune on my clothes when they can easily be ruined. Besides being practical, I actually like Wal-Marts clothing. I know, or at least I think the purpose of this experiment was to see if she could afford housing on a low income job. But I'm not so sure she got a realistic picture of people living in poverty. Every time the going got tough, she bailed out. I was really upset with her for walking out of Jerry's on one of their busiest days, leaving the other employees her job to do as well as their own. How much money did she spend on marijuana? Why was she smoking it anyway? I guess she thought it was okay to smoke pot as a recreational activity since her life had become so boring. Maybe she was smoking with some of the tenants in one of the many places she lived where she was worried about drug activity. She also mentioned at the beginning of the book that "I take occasional breaks from this life, going home now and then to catch up on e-mail and for conjugal visits." How many e-mail/conjugal visits did she take? Did Barb never work any jobs like these while in college or high school? She wasn't from an affluent family, so I would think that she had some experience with this type of work. If she was such a feminist why didn't she take the job at Menard's? Her first response to the work at Wal-Mart is "sexist contempt." She says, "I could have been in plumbing, mastering the vocabulary of valves, dangling tools from my belt." Fatigue and the fact that she had to know that the job at Wal-Mart would be less physically demanding than the job at Menard's is the reason she picked Wal-Mart. She never seemed to stay anywhere for very long. It is expensive to move around a lot - deposit money, sometimes several months rent due up front, etc. She had money put aside and a car. She also said herself that she wasn't really ever alone, she felt like she was in a Touched by an Angel story on several occasions. I agree with her findings that it is difficult to find and keep housing on the money earned from a low paying job, but did she really give it a fair shot? I'm not so sure. It seems that Barb has forgotten where she came from since she usually spends her days behind a desk or in her "attention getting roles like guest lecturer or workshop leader." I think this was a good eye opener for Barb. She sounds like the type of person who would have snubbed the people working in the jobs that she took for this experiment.


Last edited by Melissa on Wed Mar 05, 2003 1:55 pm, edited 2 times in total.



Mon Feb 24, 2003 12:15 am
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No time for a long post---I just want to say, "I love Wal-Mart's clothes too."

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Mon Feb 24, 2003 6:02 am
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Melissa, I agree with everything you said. When I was reading the book and got to the part about the chubby 4th grade teacher who needed something to wear to go eat barbecue, I began to really dislike the author. She obviously wote the book because she was told the assignment was hers and she had to.


Mon Feb 24, 2003 11:59 am
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Post Wow
Melissa....

First, I like Wal-mart clothing also...

And second...an old line I am sure we are tired of...you go girl...you said all that I had thought about and in such a better way than I ever could. We should take this book to Oprah...let her read it, then see what she has to say.


Mon Feb 24, 2003 9:15 pm
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i agree she is/was a snot.
what does she know about 4th grade teachers ? she better check her reality scale ... she assumes we are all pudgy and wear cute little sweaters with school houses and apples on them and don't do any REAL work like she does. how did you like the comment she made that she couldn't believe there wasn't more of a reaction when she said she was a writer and blew her cover to the cleaning women. what were they supposed to do? oh great. this is a game for you and tomorrow we will still be cleaning, so what if she writes ?


Mon Feb 24, 2003 9:38 pm
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Melissa, I don't what I would be wearing half the time if I didn't wear Wal-mart purchased clothes! I agree about her being a snob and still not realizing the things that go on in the "real" world.

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Wed Feb 26, 2003 10:05 am
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Walmart clothes are great for children too. They are trendy and affordable. As quick as my daughter grows out of outfits I can't afford to spend $20 on a shirt. However there will probably come a day when she wouldn't be caught dead wearing Walmart clothes. I guess that will be when I introduce what I as a teenager knew as... a part-time job afterschool. I was alloted x number of dollars for clothes each year and anything beyond that had to come out of my pocket. Well like most teenage girls I loved the mall and was quite the clothing queen. Most of my money earned in high school went to clothes. Boy how I wish now that I would have saved all that money. Then I wouldn't have so many college loans. Oh well live and learn. But my daughter will work part time, probably at a Walmart.


Wed Feb 26, 2003 1:46 pm
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Ha, Melissa, you are crazy!! Ha! Ha! I agree!! She is a toot-head. She thinks she is just a little bit better than everybody else. She needs to live on our salary and she will learn to budget her money and shop wherever the sales are. That's the real world.

DANA 8)


Wed Feb 26, 2003 2:45 pm
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hey guys, no class tonight so i am re-reading our board and i start thinking about what old barbsey baby is doing now and lo and behold there is a website that tells you! for fun go there and click on all the links. the address is www.nickelanddimed.net very interesting.


Wed Feb 26, 2003 8:06 pm
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Airlie
I can't get on that website from my school computer!!!!!!!!! I had a nice little warning telling me I could get in trouble if I went to that site. Barb must be up to "SOMETHING."
Cindy


Thu Feb 27, 2003 11:00 am
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cindy, believe it or not she is actually trying to do some things politically to get better wages for workers, improve housing etc. she didn't just stop with the book. i was very glad! she still sounds like a snob but at least she is trying to follow thru.


Thu Feb 27, 2003 12:50 pm
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Sherrie, wait and see for your daughter. Some teenagers aren't as picky. Of course, I have a son instead of a daughter, but he really doesn't care too much about what he wears. I almost always buy his clothes without him there. And he doesn't complain. He is only 12, so maybe he will change.

I remember not really caring as long as my clothes were some of my favorite colors. Anything in a solid color of purple, yellow, blue, pink, or red... In fact, my mom used to make our clothes. There were three of us girls--I'm the middle one. She was a single mom for 10 years. And actually, she made her own clothes too. There were outfits that I loved. ANd then there were (matching) outfits that she made (with prints--yuck)...well, all four of us looked like we were constructed from a couch, a set of drapes, or in one instance, a tablecloth. Nightmare stuff--I have pictures.

I have a point, hang in there: My youngest sister, Paige, became very picky about the brand of her clothes. (She had to do a lot of babysitting to buy them herself. I babysat and saved my money because I really didn't care what I wore.) I guess this would make Paige a snob based on just this clothes issue, but I don't really think she is one. I think some people are just really into clothes. Maybe, on Barb's behalf, she is just one of those people who looks at fashion a lot. True, that is materialistic, but there are a lot of people who fit in that catagory. I'm just defending her a little here on the clothes issue.

I still like her. Sorry.

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Thu Feb 27, 2003 6:53 pm
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I don't think Barb is really a snob. How many of us would give up our comfortable homes/lives and do what she did. At least she is making people aware.


Thu Feb 27, 2003 9:17 pm
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I don't think Barb is a snob either. I believe that she simply wanted to know about the econmics of the situation. She stated in the beginning of the book that she knew she wouldn't be able to truely experince the "life of poverty". I believe she accomplished what she set out to do, open the public eye to minimum wage life. :shock:


Mon Mar 17, 2003 12:43 pm
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