Acclaimed as an instant classic upon publication, Nickel and Dimed has sold more than 1.5 million copies and become a staple of classroom reading. Chosen for “one book” initiatives across the country, it has fueled nationwide campaigns for a living wage. Funny, poignant, and passionate, this revelatory firsthand account of life in low-wage America—the story of Barbara Ehrenreich’s attempts to eke out a living while working as a waitress, hotel maid, house cleaner, nursing-home aide, and Wal-Mart associate—has become an essential part of the nation’s political discourse.
Now, in a new afterword, Ehrenreich shows that the plight of the underpaid has in no way eased: with fewer jobs available, deteriorating work conditions, and no pay increase in sight, Nickel and Dimed is more relevant than ever.
Novelist and poet Berry offers an eclectic group of essays on subjects ranging from economics and education to agriculture and the feminist movement. In "Six Agricultural Fallacies," for example, he argues in his typically individualistic way, that agriculture cannot be considered an industry because industry centers on machinery, which is not alive, while agriculture is a matter of living and breathing organisms. He also maintains that a factory may break down and machinery will fall into disrepair, but that soil, when properly used, will never "wear out." Elsewhere he praises the art of working by hand. Noting that he is not an authority on many of his subjects, he gives his opinions nonetheless, which help make this collection quirky and amusing.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Rich or poor, we all face the problem of money. But is money chiefly a personal problem, how we use our own resources? Or a societal problem, how we organize the economy? Jacques Ellul exposes the folly of a purely societal approach-whether communism, collectivism, socialism or capitalism-and argues for individual responsibility. Money, he says, is not neutral, something we can use as we like. Instead it is a powerful agent that sets itself against God's kingdom. Tracing the scriptural attitudes toward wealth from Old Testament sacramentalism through New Testament renunciation, he challenges Christians to live by the law of grace and not by the law of the marketplace. (Comments from back of printed book.) - Free pdf download of the book
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If you lost everything, how long would it take you to get something to eat, find a place to stay, and a get some work? Brazil
