More books to read

[ennierda]

Today in the mail I got "Bait and Switch: The (Futile) Pursuit of the American Dream" by Barbara Ehrenreich and started reading it, because I loved "Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting by in America." The premise of "Nickel and Dimed" was that she went undercover and worked a series of minimum wage jobs in three different cities, attempting to survive on a mix of her wages and government help. Shockingly enough, she found that you can't do it. In "Bait and Switch" she essentially tries to go undercover in the corporate world and report on why white collar unemployment is on the rise. However, most of the book is taken up by the silliness that goes on in the job hunt (job coaching, personality tests, writing a resume and network, network, network!) I think that she would have been better off taking the interview strategy of reporting (as used in "The Working Poor"), which would have netted a far wider range of experience, rather than going undercover herself. First of all, she's forty and has never worked in the corporate world. Second of all, any companies that run a credit check are going to see that she is not who she says she is (she legally changed her name back to her maiden name in order to hide her identity as a journalist.) Thirdly, she set her sights too high for a starting position in a company - she's aiming for a $50,000 a year job when her resume clearly states that she is currently unemployed.

I'm seriously bored by this book so far. That doesn't happen often. Very disappointing. :(

Anyway. Anyone who's interested in this sort of stuff is better off with her other book, "Nickel and Dimed." Much more interesting. Especially the chapter where she works at Wal-Mart.

Speaking of Wal-Mart, go see the anti-Wal-Mart movie! I'm going to, once the thesis is done. ^_^