Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America

by Barbara Ehrenreich

I have written, as usual, that I am

self. So I go to the pay phone in the front of the store, call the store’s number, and ask for personnel.

the general reluctance to exchange the devil you know for one that you don’t know, even when the latter is tempting you with a better wage-benefit package. At each new job, you have to start all over, clueless and friendless.