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

by Barbara Ehrenreich

The moneylenders have finally gotten Jesus out of the temple.

why such fiends as these union organizers, such outright extortionists, are allowed to roam free in the land.

What you don’t necessarily realize when you start selling your time by the hour is that what you’re actually selling is your life.

It is a tragic cycle, condemning us to ever deeper inequality, and in the long run, almost no one benefits but the agents of repression themselves.

guilt doesn’t go anywhere near far enough; the appropriate emotion is shame—

To be a member of the working poor is to be an anonymous donor, a nameless benefactor, to everyone else.