[bjourne]

I think everyone should read Nickel and Dimed (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nickel_and_Dimed) by Barbara Ehrenreich. She goes undercover and tries to survive working minimum wage jobs. I don't think I'm spoiling the book by revealing that she wasn't able to. After three months she were so deep in debt that she had to abort the experiment.

[bmmayer1]

That book was well written but incredibly condescending to people who do live those lives and don't get to 'abort the experiment' when they aren't comfortable with the step down in lifestyle anymore. And obviously there are millions of people who live on those wages in the real world, not in the fiction she created for herself. She was obviously trying to make a point about the difficulty of being poor or 'working poor' which is hard to dispute. Obviously it is difficult being poor and it always has been.

The real questions of import are left completely unanswered in that book: what meaningful policy changes can be made to increase jobs, training, education, lower costs (that's a big one--she never mentions the supply side at all) and other meaningful metrics that actually move the needle rather than merely evince patronizing sympathy from her Prius-driving, suburb-occupying, Ivy League-educated audience.

[antisthenes]

She's a writer, not an economist.

It's good that she didn't try to tackle a problem completely outside her competence, unlike the libertarian economists of HN.

[viridian]

I wonder if this is just a lack of knowledge on how to survive while poor. I'm in a good economic position compared to most of the US and certainly most of the world, but I can't see myself having much of an issue with this. Growing up there were times where my family was homeless, and my first job I was a carpenter's apprentice, paid under the table, for less than minimum wage.

It's not that being poor is extremely difficult in the US in particular, but rather that those born wealthy who have never been poor, have no idea how to operate in that environment.

[bjourne]

It's probably more about lack of liquidity than the lack of knowledge. Housing costs are higher if you are living in a daily motel and can't afford to pay 2-3 months of rent in advance. Food is also more expensive if you don't have access to proper cooking utensils and your own oven and so on.

It was a long time since I read the book, but I recall that the experiment ended because she had more unforseen expenses than she could keep up with. I think her car broke down a few times and as she had no money in her pocket, she had to take out payday loans to get it repaired. Eventually she couldn't do that anymore so no car, no way to get to work, no job and no income.

[wolfgke]

> I think her car broke down a few times and as she had no money in her pocket, she had to take out payday loans to get it repaired. Eventually she couldn't do that anymore so no car, no way to get to work, no job and no income.

Why not do carpooling instead?

[bjourne]

Part of her experiment was to move out of her social network. And carpooling doesn't work unless you know other people who also needs to move from point A to point B at time C. She didn't know such people.

Besides, she worked as an hourly employee which meant that she, as most hourly workers, didn't have a fixed schedule but would receive one on a weekly basis from her manager. Making car pooling even harder.

[grosbisou]

Absolutely. It's not easy being on minimum wage. But most people don't know what they are talking about. A good example: https://twitter.com/gwynethpaltrow/status/586168041576116224...

[wolfgke]

There exist tables in the internet how to optimize your grocery shopping while still getting all the necessary nutrients if you are short on money. Use them. I know that it will not be comfortable, but to me there is hardly any excuse for not using them.