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Nickel and Dimed: Introduction

In this exposé, the journalist goes undercover to learn about the struggles of low-wage workers in the United States.

Here are links to our lists for the book: Introduction, Chapter One, Chapter Two, Chapter Three, Evaluation–Afterword
15 words 1224 learners

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Full list of words from this list:

  1. autonomous
    free from external control and constraint
    In my own family, the low-wage way of life had never been many degrees of separation away; it was close enough, in any case, to make me treasure the gloriously autonomous, if not always well-paid, writing life.
  2. misgiving
    uneasiness about the fitness of an action
    Adding to my misgivings, certain family members kept reminding me unhelpfully that I could do this project, after a fashion, without ever leaving my study.
  3. subsidy
    a grant of financial assistance, especially by a government
    But if the question was whether a single mother leaving welfare could survive without government assistance in the form of food stamps, Medicaid, and housing and child care subsidies, the answer was well known before I ever left the comforts of home.
  4. mundane
    found in the ordinary course of events
    I have a Ph.D. in biology, and I didn’t get it by sitting at a desk and fiddling with numbers. In that line of business, you can think all you want, but sooner or later you have to get to the bench and plunge into the everyday chaos of nature, where surprises lurk in the most mundane measurements.
  5. parameter
    any factor defining a system and determining its performance
    In the spirit of science, I first decided on certain rules and parameters.
  6. relevant
    having a bearing on or connection with the subject at issue
    There was also the problem of how to present myself to potential employers and, in particular, how to explain my dismal lack of relevant job experience.
  7. tribulation
    an annoying or frustrating or catastrophic event
    Finally, I set some reassuring limits to whatever tribulations I might have to endure.
  8. dither
    make a fuss; be agitated
    Almost anyone could do what I did — look for jobs, work those jobs, try to make ends meet. In fact, millions of Americans do it every day, and with a lot less fanfare and dithering.
  9. assets
    anything of material value owned by a person or company
    With all the real-life assets I’ve built up in middle age — bank account, IRA, health insurance, multiroom home — waiting indulgently in the background, there was no way I was going to “experience poverty” or find out how it “really feels” to be a long-term low-wage worker.
  10. penury
    a state of extreme poverty or destitution
    Ideally, at least if I were seeking to replicate the experience of a woman entering the workforce from welfare, I would have had a couple of children in tow, but mine are grown and no one was willing to lend me theirs for a month-long vacation in penury.
  11. unencumbered
    free of anything that impedes or is burdensome
    In addition to being mobile and unencumbered, I am probably in a lot better health than most members of the long-term low-wage workforce.
  12. brash
    offensively bold
    I did modify my vocabulary, however, in one respect: at least when I was new at a job and worried about seeming brash or disrespectful, I censored the profanities that are—thanks largely to the Teamster influence—part of my normal speech.
  13. ineradicable
    not able to be destroyed or rooted out
    Several times since completing this project I have been asked by acquaintances whether the people I worked with couldn’t, uh, tell — the supposition being that an educated person is ineradicably different, and in a superior direction, from your workaday drones.
  14. homogeneous
    all of the same or similar kind or nature
    To state the proposition in reverse, low-wage workers are no more homogeneous in personality or ability than people who write for a living, and no less likely to be funny or bright.
  15. anticlimactic
    ultimately disappointing after a promising or exciting start
    In each setting, toward the end of my stay and after much anxious forethought, I “came out” to a few chosen coworkers. The result was always stunningly anticlimactic, my favorite response being, “Does this mean you’re not going to be back on the evening shift next week?”
Created on Tue May 09 20:50:20 EDT 2017 (updated Thu Aug 07 15:40:10 EDT 2025)

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