In this courageous, eloquent, reflective account of working for $6 or $7 per hour and then trying to live on it, Barbara Ehrenreich attempts to expand public awareness of the insulting travesty of minimum wage and the often mind-numbing and humiliating work required to receive such a wage. In each location, she provides readers with simple details, such as how she found work and what that work involved, how she was treated by prospective employers, how she found a place to live, and how she attempted to manage what little money she made.

These descriptions provide perspectives unavailable to most people who have never lived with the constant threat of poverty and everything associated with it: living in inadequate housing and with no health insurance; relying on broken-down cars or public transportation; silently facing the smug, patronizing, and at times abusive behaviors of employers as she is constantly monitored for "signs of sloth, theft, drug abuse, or worse."

In addition--and here's where the real merits of the book can be found--she attempts to tell readers what it feels like to be situated in a sociopolitical environment where treading water is about as good as it gets. All the while, she acknowledges that her position is one of privilege even within this social class category: she does not, for example, bear the brunt of racism, nor does she have child care expenses to worry about or the constant threat of losing time to take care of sick children.

This book should be required reading for all medical and nursing students. It offers a look at the lives of persons facing economic challenges far beyond superficial medical encounters and into the worlds they inhabit.