Christopher Barnes Instructor Lancaster SOC 110 Writing Assignment

Nickel and Dime Response A brief summary of the book includes a wealthy female sociologist gives up her wonderful, comfortable suburban life, family, and great job immerse her into experience the world in the lower-class. She would spend a small, seemingly minute time of her life, for a period of only one month. Find employment to earn enough money, search for an apartment and/or housing of some type, and still have enough money for groceries and utilities. She starts by searching through and finding newspaper ads and circles all job openings, but most of the ads were not hiring, turning out to be dead-ends; Many companies stated it was for purposes they couldnt explain at mostly done to keep new applicants on file when an employee is fired than it being a regulation told by one of the companies bosses, when questioned by her. Eventually she was able to find a job as a waitress where her pay was minimum ($5.50) after tipping out the bartender and hostess each night. She lived in a trailer park because it is all she could afford. She began to try an push herself to maximum capacity physically by working two jobs, another which turned out to also be a waitressing job which was more fast-paced, which meant more customers, and more problems. Her health began to decline and she also saw that the health of others around her in other restaurants did also, who took smoke breaks as quick as they could get a puff on their way back to the kitchen. Due to the wear and tear on her body from the second job she was forced to quit and return to the primary or first job where she made friends of a diverse crowd. She was also forced to move to a more affordable place with little time left in that month. But overall, she found that living in lower class day to day was difficult, and terrible in many ways, such as having no healthcare, coworkers with no place to sleep, and not enough income for the necessary things for survival, where many are forced into petty theft just to survive in life. In conclusion, during the time undercover she was humbled by the things she was forced to do and would learn from the experience, and with her co-workers, to not judge each book by its cover because you never know someones situation. Furthermore, as a sociologist I am sure this experience was worth every valuable piece of research, because each piece was earned day to day, until the very end. In order to connect the five sociological concepts (excluding theories), we must first identify each in order to relate them to the section of the book that was read. The five sociological concepts that were chosen are the following:

1. Social stratification refers to how individuals and groups are layered or ranked in society according to how many valued resources they possess. Stratification is an ongoing process of sorting people into different levels of access to resources, with the sorting legitimated by cultural belief. When referring to book, this is when the author learned how people can judge you without thinking twice, and also even inequalities because of what you look kike, where you work, what kind of vehicle you are driving, all of these are part of the social stratification In the reading. I knew once she left the class she was in for the experiment she would realize wherever she worked would be rotten individuals waiting to make her life miserable as she is there doing her job at her best.

2. Life chances refer to your opportunities, depending on your achieved and ascribed status in society The impact of social conditions on life expectancy is especially evident. So whether considered locally or globally, access to health care resources makes a difference in life chances. To an extent, the chance to have a long and healthy life is a privilege of the elite.

3. Social mobility refers to the extent to which people move up or down in the class system, especially from one generation to the next. In the book I felt that if someone is working the jobs at the restaurants were given no handouts by family, and probably have family struggling the same as them. Minorities are part of this chain along with many whites not born into wealthy families, as what was identified in the book as one female co-worker actually living and sleeping in her car each night..

4. Relative poverty refers to those whose income falls below the poverty line; For her co-workers and herself many were not making enough money to live each day. Theyre situations were full of making choices for survival, such as working another job. By doing so the authors health was put at risk by having to feed herself a cheeseburger in while working , but someone she may be serving has an hour lunch who isnt below that line. Imagine all the other co-workers who had been doing these body draining jobs, where the female Spanish manager had a bad leg and no healthcare to be seen about her illnesses.

5. Anomie: normlessness; I also feel that most of the people working to have some or most of the necessities also their behavior is shaped this way because of ambiguity promising our sense of belonging and it can be linked to performing acts such as-suicide. I feel that many of them are on the verge pf

performing such an act since many of her co-workers again were homeless, had barely any money, but are still trying to survive. Furthermore in order to analyze the theoretical perspectives, we must allow ourselves to look at these situations with a different set of lenses at the following perspectives below: 1. The conflict perspective claims that inequality and injustice are the source of the conflicts that permeate society. Resources and power are distributed unequally some members have money (as each co-worker worked rigorously to receive a minuet check because they are trying to each survive),goods(shopping at convenience stores instead of grocery stores because of the prices), and prestige than others (the prestige felt was to have a good shift, a good meal at least, no more financial worries, where they will sleep, etc.) shows there is not one ounce of prestige. In addition, the conflict of welfare being changed or presented by the haves, surely conflict erupted between the two but no change. The rich protect their positions by using the power they have accumulated to keep the less fortunate in their places. 2. Structural-functional perspective as on the job at the restaurant , groups adhere to rules in order to fit in. This ept the restaurant , groups adhere to rules in order to fit in. This kept the restaurant running smoothly and in an orderly manner by the manager, once the author was hired and reprimanded for small mistakes, and she eventually learned to become a part of the group by fitting into her position (basically learning her place) in the restaurant. A persons behavior is governed from within, because it feels right and proper to behave in accordance with what is expected. 3. Sociological Perspective uses the fact that we can be best understood our personal experiences and problems by examining their broader social conflict by looking at the larger view or picture. An example of this was when corporate came from the top with new rules which affected the management and further down to the employees. The staff will conform to the new regulations and without question to maintain their job. My personal opinion of the reading the reading was amazing. That it made me actually feel like there are people exploring lower class situation and helping it get to the right people to make a change. But honestly I have lived myself in more directions than I had wanted or liked, where roaches, scorpions, snakes, terrorists, etc. were your roommates. The most current idea behind my statement is that is that as a veteran, all Ive known was the military. The only advantage to me is that now that I am out the military and learned one thing that has keeping me from poverty, and true homelessness (which I have been 3 times since I have been out of it) while attending Coastal Carolina College. I was just finally happy to see some type of literature on the subject of welfare and hard-times many people are going through each day. To also see the pain we lower class feel including family daily that to me I didnt learn a thing from the reading. To me the experiences to most of classmates here, or what would be considered challenges to the author, myself and I feel most of us feel this could be an insult from some of

here phrases and actions of submerging herself from such a great life to a terrible life in lower class. I feel we basically had to read a story of our daily lives, especially friends, and siblings. I hope she learns to respect people more because I was offended by some of the not being tough enough to handle everyday life for most because here old ways of being overwhelmed or not showing much strength in terrible situations shows its harder as it seemed, and was only one month in length. It is a known fact that minorities are the only ones mostly still at the bottom of social classes of society, and (until recent events): The election of the president of the United States who is considered African-American and also a minority. Which to me is still not good enough due to our own president receiving: racial negativity, nationally, and worldwide, much more than most presidents, through media scorn, etc. The only thing I learned was that one person finally can see the hardships some experience daily and are trying to come out of but are trapped like mice. The question of did I learn anything from the reading? To the reading was insulting in some ways and wonderful at the same time in which more of my classmates agreed with me. We basically had to rea the story of our daily lives,(especially if you are a minority), a wealthy white woman live the story of our daily lives. We basically had to read of a rich sociologist come from here comfortable life to trying to make it on her own as a lower class individual to analyze how much we struggle, and the difficulties for survival in person. One thing I can say I learned is that many of my minority people are still struggling to make it each day, and also each penny counts, from her experiences. Money management is definitely a key to survival and to some of her employee friends have selected petty criminal activity for survival, ant the hilarious portion is that only in one month a wealthy woman with everything went through straight hell and almost didnt last her one month period. To me the reading was neither eye-opening nor enlightening; The definition of eye-opening from the Merriam-Webster Dictionary online defines as: causing a strong emotional reaction because of expectedness; This is definitely not the case for me because once I started the reading I couldnt stop, only because I wanted to see the unexpected surprises, and battles a rich woman would go through. Only because I wanted to see if any predictions were going to be true of her, hardships and triumphs, just to get through as many of my own family and friends do. The predictions were of: 1.Suffering, 2. Hatred for job and some people including customers, 3. Financial situation, 4.Living situations, 5. Gas money, and 6. Being treated unequally all way. In conclusion, the author took courage to stick through such a hard thing to do to exchange her life for one month. For this I do commend her for her efforts of I am sure she has learned many viable lessons, and made friends that she may have never spoken to more than a request for food and water at a restaurant, and not knowing exactly what each person may be going through on a daily basis just to survive This will definitely teach her and give her the ability to know not judge by first appearance and to be happier and feel blessed for the many belongings she has in her normal environment, and social class. Hopefully, this book can change

the notion of the law makers and to actually see that the major changes being made without the vital view of the subject such as welfare that affects many of thousands of people each day.