I dig Barbara Ehrenreich

Barbara Ehrenreich photo courtesy Jay Westcott/Rapport

I’m reading Barbara Ehrenreich’s Nickel and Dimed right now.

It’s the bestselling story of a middle class, middle-aged, accomplished woman with a Ph.D. and financial resources who goes undercover as a waitress, cleaning lady, nursing home aide and low-level Wal-Mart staffer for three months in three states to experience what those in poverty experience every day and night just to put a roof over the heads and food in their stomachs.

This is how the book, which came out a decade ago – I know, I’m slow – is described:

Nickel and Dimed reveals low-wage America in all its tenacity, anxiety, and surprising generosity – a land of Big Boxes, fast food, and a thousand desperate stratagems for survival. Instantly acclaimed for its insight, humor, and passion, this book is changing the way America perceives its working poor.

It’s certainly changed the way I think about those on the bottom rungs of the economic ladder. I’m not too far up that ladder myself and have always respected those in the service industry but I’ve even more empathetic now thanks to Ehrenreich, an award-winning author of 21 books who writes in a compelling, easy, direct, sometimes funny voice. I’ve added her to my “People I Dig” list and I haven’t even finished the book yet.

I wasn’t surprised when I learned that she’s disgusted about Occupy Wall Street protesters being evicted from Zuccotti Park by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg yesterday. In an interview with The Guardian, this muckraker and champion of working people said, "One of the appalling things here is that there are so many Democratic mayors involved in these crackdowns or in Bloomberg's case, someone who is seen as a liberal.

"And where in all this was Obama?,” she added. “Why couldn't he have picked up the phone at some point a couple of weeks ago and called the mayors of Portland and Oakland and said: 'go easy on these people. They represent the anger and aspirations of the majority.' Would that have been so difficult?"

I know some protesters see Democrats as being as complicit as Republicans in the corruption of our system and don’t want the OWS movement to be co-opted by any politician. This doesn’t mean the Leader of the Free World, the guy who’s supposed to speak for all of us, not just those with Wall Street addresses on their business cards, can’t make a speech – not a muffled statement but a speech – in support of those sacrificing their time, comfort, safety and reputation to stand against greed, class warfare and the kind of economic injustice that Ehrenreich so skillfully describes in her riveting exposé.

I can relate to her evolution on the issue of voting too. She told The Guardian that for years she had “maintained the importance of going out to vote” but now she’s sympathetic to the argument of some OWS protestors that voting doesn’t mean anything given the corruption in politics. I’m struggling with the same question: does voting really matter anymore? Seems like more of us need to “think outside of the booth” to have an impact on today’s political landscape.

I urge you to read Nickel and Dimed if you haven’t already. Ehrenreich’s website is here.

OWS protesters being evicted from Zuccotti Park courtesy AP/Craig Ruttle

Source: The Guardian.