‘Nickel and Dimed’ author says poverty a major issue

from the Reporter Herald com

By Marisa Beahm
The Reporter-Herald
FORT COLLINS — Author and activist Barbara Ehrenreich wants to shatter people’s assumptions about the people who live in poverty.

“Poverty can hit anyone at any time, no matter how educated or well-credentialed you think you are,” she said during a speech Saturday.

Ehrenreich is known for her best-selling book “Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America,” for which she studied working-class poverty by entering into the low-paid work force in three different states to see if she could make ends meet.

She brought the lessons from the experience to a crowd of about 600 at the Northside Aztlan Community Center in Fort Collins.

“(Ehrenreich) is an insightful social critic,” said April Biasiolli, a graduate student at Colorado State University who attended the luncheon talk.

The author of 18 books, Ehrenreich was the keynote speaker in the series “Life on a Shoestring: Perspectives on stepping out of poverty,” a six-week program featuring 40 events in Fort Collins to foster a community dialogue about poverty.

The time Ehrenreich spent working in low-wage positions, which included jobs as a maid, a waitress and at Wal-Mart, dismissed any notions the Ph.D. had that low-paying jobs were unchallenging.

“I will never use the word unskilled again,” Ehrenreich said. “Every job takes intelligence, skill, a great deal of concentration and deserves our respect.”

Ehrenreich said easy credit makes poverty look like less of an issue, because people can use credit cards as a crutch.

“Plenty of people have been living in a recession for a long, long time,” she said.

Another issue people face today is that a college degree doesn’t ensure a well-paid job anymore because of trends such as outsourcing, according to Ehrenreich.

“Poverty increases as high-tech jobs disappear,” Ehrenreich said.

To overcome poverty, Ehrenreich said society must treat it as a moral issue and focus on developing jobs that pay a living wage, not just a minimum wage.

A theater version of “Nickel and Dimed” is being performed by Open Stage Theatre through March 22 at the Lincoln Center.

“It made everybody squirm, and that is a good thing,” said Carol Bennis, executive director of Beet Street, a nonprofit that fosters creativity through diverse cultural experiences and programming.

In addition to Beet Street, Life on a Shoestring is also sponsored by WomenGive, a women’s leadership initiative with United Way that addresses economic self-sufficiency for women and girls in Larimer County.