A hat tip to Prof. Paul Nachman at Montana State for spotting this article by Katherine Kersten (published in early December) about a UNC student who had to read Barbara Ehrenreich’s book Nickel and Dimed for class — and didn’t buy the author’s gloom-and-doom view of low-wage work in America.

He repeated her experiment (entering the low-wage job market with no credentials on his resume) and found that it is possible not only to live on a low wage, but to save money. Immigrants in the 19th century did just that, and it’s still possible. He wrote a book about the experience, Scratch Beginnings.

Schools like assigning the Nickel and Dimed screed because it fits their anti-capitalistic views, and it probably gets at least some students into the hand-wringing “the government must do something!” frame of mind.