Barbara Ehrenreich’s style of immersion journalism concerning the poor working class sheds light on what life is truly like for people who cannot or can hardly afford the simple necessities that allow someone to live in America. In order to truly understand what these people go through, the author sets out to live the life of a struggling working-class woman.

Because she decided to give herself a certain number of resources initially, her first month’s rent was already paid for. She opted to live in a place that was farther away from the hub of Key West where she looked for work, so her rent was cheaper than what she would have paid in the town. This still proved to be a nuisance for her daily traveling, and by the end of her first month, she did not have the money needed to pay for another month’s rent.

In looking for jobs, Ehrenreich was initially picky: no waitressing or clerking. Still, she eventually got a job as a waitress at a hotel and began making less money than she would have in other capacities. She made just over $5 an hour and had to deal with the fact that her salary was just over $2.40 an hour plus tips. As stated before, the amount of money she ended up making didn’t add up for rent.

Ehrenreich’s food situation was murky at best. The author’s lunch consisted of chicken patties and canned beans, while her suppers came in the form of $2 burgers at the restaurant. She still found herself hungry at night.

Based on what is stated in the author’s work, working-class poor tend to worry about housing more than anything else. Ehrenreich’s coworkers had incredibly shady living situations – some shacked up together in a hotel, others split the rent in flophouses. Some could afford to live in a trailer, while others were living out of their cars. The moral of the story is none had favorable living situations, and many worried about where they lived at the time and plotted to move as a response. One question to ask a poverty-stricken worker is, “What is your living situation like, and do you feel comfortable in the place you’re staying now?”

In doing work for Prof. Foley’s and Prof. Carpenter’s documentary classes, my knowledge and familiarity of the homeless situation in Northwest Arkansas has increased exponentially. I am not only familiar with the poorest individuals in the area, but I know some of them as friends and have a broad understanding of their circumstances. Many of the people I will interview live in the Seven Hills housing complex in Fayetteville, where tenants pay just over $200 a month to live in temporary housing. Most were formerly homeless, so they are happy to be where they are. At the same time, they strive to improve their economic situation and standing, so they don’t plan on staying in the housing for more than a year or half a year at a time.

Questions like, “Was there anything you could have done to prevent living in this situation, and is there anything you believe you can do to get out of it?” could garner interesting responses. Or, “Do you believe officials can and should help you and why?” could shed light on how these people believe they should be treated. Many topics and future questions came to mind when reading Ehrenreich’s piece, and I truly believe it will be a resource for me as I dive into the projects associated with this data reporting class.

Making sense of the Simplified Poverty SS…

County in question: Benton,

In Benton County there are 185,684 people of at least 16 years of age, of that number .642 are in the labor force, so 185,684(.642)=119,209 people of age to work who have jobs. Civilian Labor force is nearly the same portion. I can use this formula for the remaining decimals or translate it by using percentages, by moving the decimal to understand the portion of the community pertaining to each category. After considering these numbers and how they relate to the county’s population I think it’s best to look at what categories I think are the most interesting. I think the most news worth categories are the final three,

The data laid out in the spreadsheet lists many pieces of information involving Arkansas counties and the people who live in them. The information is separated to show statistics involving the economic situations in each county (employment, unemployment, salaries, healthcare, etc.).

The purpose of this blogpost is to use the data presented to determine the county with the highest median household income and the county with the lowest median household income.

Based on the table, the county with the highest median household income would be Benton Co. with 59,016. The county with the lowest median household income would be Lee Co. with 25,724.

In doing further research on the table, one can see that Benton Co. has a 2.2-percent unemployment rate compared to Lee Co.’s 6.7 percent. Based on that information, one can see that Benton Co. has a lower unemployment rate, meaning more citizens work and therefore have more money to spend. That observation doesn’t take into consideration those who work menial jobs with minimum wage. At the same time, Lee Co. has a higher unemployment rate, meaning fewer people have jobs and, therefore, not as much money in their households.