One of the most telling passages in “Nickel and Dimed” is found in the footnotes on page 211. Ehrenreich, when discussing the psychological toll that living under a dictatorship can take, suggests that being treated as someone of lowly status ultimately leads to acceptance of that position, and when that occurs the cycle of a self-fulling prophesy occurs. As Ehrenreich puts it, “If you’re made to feel unworthy enough, you may come to think that what you’re paid is what you’re worth,” and the footnotes cite two studies that support this point. Thus, she says, “we depend for our self-image on the humans immediately around us–to the point of altering our perceptions of the world so as to fit in with theirs.”

I cannot sufficiently emphasize the importance of this point. Indeed, elements of my own experience bears it out. At various times in my career I have occupied positions at exalted levels (for example, in the upper echelons of large non-profits in Mew York City), and at other times I have struggled to hold my head up amongst people who very likely would not meet the qualifications to vacuum the floors on 49th Street (for example, when I was tending bar in a campus hangout in Tallahassee, Florida).

Oh, yes, over time our self-image can vary enormously. What does this mean for social class and upward mobility in current employment situations? A lot, as we shall see.