Nickel and Dimed:

An epitaph for the American Dream

Abstract

The work was based on Barbara Ehrenreich's curiosity about the survival possibilities of a part of the American population, the one that is not shown in series or films and that, given this cultural process, does not exist in the world's largest economic power: the poor class, which survives on salaries of US$6.00 to US$7.00 per hour through unskilled jobs. Despite not being present in the process of cultural diffusion, around 30% of American workers make up this segment of the income pyramid. Barbara Ehrenreich, by literally placing herself as a low-income worker in American daily life, exposes the precariousness, pay conditions and frequent discrimination against the American working class, which is very far from what was once the American dream.