My recent postings about the non-unionised workforce and companies such as Wal-Mart prompts a colleague to give me a copy of Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich.

Ehrenreich, a journalist and commentator, takes a variety of low paid, deadend jobs -- a waitress, cleaner, nursing home assistant and Walmart "associate" -- in an attempt to discover whether it's possible to live on the borderline poverty wages on offer.

Ehrenreich paints a depressing picture of poor diet and healthcare, despotic managers and workers who've had the life sucked out of them by their daily struggle just to survive.

It's a sparsely written and powerful insight into what life is like for millions of blue collar Americans.