Nickel and Whined in America

I've been avoiding reading Nickel and Dimed in America for a while now, because I expected it to be a load of self-righteous bitching. But now I have to read it for school, and surprisingly enough, I was exactly right. If you've had the fortune to avoid it, here's what you have to look forward to:

• A whole hell of a lot of self-righteous bitching, including outrage at encountering pubes while working as a maid.
• Broad statements not backed up by statistics, or any form of proof.
• A belief that somehow her book is profound and will make a difference, along with a call for government to help the poor more.

She's good at writing a sob story, but why a Google search for "'nickel and dimed' site:.edu" (which should be indicative of how many schools are using the book) turns up around 24,700 results is beyond me. She obviously doesn't understand that minimum wages and such hurt the poor (though I don't dispute that Wal-Mart's treatment of its employees is ridiculous).