In the book Nickel and Dimed On (Not) Getting By in America, author Barbara Ehrenreich attempts to go undercover as a minimum wage worker. Her primary reason for going undercover is to see if she can "match income to expenses as the feeble attempt to do every day"(Ehrenreich 6). Ehrenreich makes it extremely clear that her work was not designed to make her "experience poverty"(6). After completing the assignment, which was given to her by an editor, she had planned to write an article about her experience. Her article was meant to reach the financially well-off community and give them an idea of how minimum wage workers deal with everyday life. Ehrenreich's motives gave her the tools to experience poverty from a statistical standpoint. Still, they kept her from experiencing the problems poor people faced when it really mattered, such as going hungry. On her first attempt in Florida, Ehrenreich found out that the assignment entailed getting close with the low-wage workers and feeling their hardships.
             During the first pages of the book, the reader becomes very aware of Ehrenreich's financial situation. She is a well-off worker who has not had a minimum wage job since 18 years old. That is what makes this book interesting: the reader is learning of the struggles of the poor just as Ehrenreich had. She portrays each person very well and makes one get to know the people and their different struggles. She does this and finds out if the math works out between minimum wage and housing, bills, food, etc. Because she goes from the top to the bottom, the first-hand experience and flat-out shock at some points make the book very interesting.
             Although Ehrenreich's motive was supposed to be straightforward, throughout her very first few days, she found out that even though she doesn't necessarily live in poverty like the people she worked with while undergoing the assignment, she did every day. Barbara learned of their hardships and struggle...