• Listen to this segment

• Listen to the entire program

Texas Governor Rick Perry recently announced his candidacy for President amidst praise for his state’s ability to create jobs in a recession. Perry attributed Texas’ success to a cut back in the state regulation of businesses and minimal tax rates. However, the reality behind Perry’s claims of success is a cheap labor supply in a state that according to the Department of Labor statistics, had the highest percentage of workers in minimum wage jobs (tied with Mississippi). Writing in the Washington Post, Harold Meyerson finds that Texas also has the lowest number of adults without high school diplomas and has made considerable cuts to K-12 public education to deal with the state deficit without increasing taxes. If Rick Perry becomes President, would Perrynomics turn the entire nation into Texas’ example? Ten years ago this summer, author and academic Barbara Ehrenreich conducted a social experiment on whether it was possible to survive in the U.S. on low wages. Her 2001 book, Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America, challenged the all-too-common rhetoric that frames the working poor as social pariahs who deserve their lot. Ehrenreich topok up jobs in a variety of careers including waitressing, housecleaning, and even as a Wal-Mart sales clerk. At the time she published the book, official reports stated that 7 dollars an hour was well above the poverty level. What she found was that it was impossible to live on so little money and that we as a society owe the working poor a great debt: “When someone works for less pay than she can live on … she has made a great sacrifice for you … The “working poor” … are in fact the major philanthropists of our society. They neglect their own children so that the children of others will be cared for; they live in substandard housing so that other homes will be shiny and perfect; they endure privation so that inflation will be low and stock prices high. To be a member of the working poor is to be an anonymous donor, a nameless benefactor, to everyone.” Nickel and Dimed became a national bestseller and was assigned reading in many University courses, which predictably garnered the backlash from the Right. Ehrenreich wrote the book during a booming economy and has just re-released the book on its 10th anniversary with a new afterword.

Thank you Gift:

Nickel and Dimed, 10th Anniversary Edition – $75

Call 818-985-KPFK (5735) or visit www.kpfk.org to make a pledge.