"The appropriate emotion is shame — shame at our own dependency, in this case, on the underpaid labor of others. When someone works for less pay than she can live on — when, for example, she goes hungry so that you can eat more cheaply and conveniently — then she has made a great sacrifice for you, she has made you a gift of some part of her abilities, her health, and her life. The "working poor," as they are approvingly termed, are in fact the major philanthropists of our society. They neglect their own children so that the children of others will be cared for; they live in substandard housing so that other homes will be shiny and perfect; they endure privation so that inflation will be low and stock prices high. To be a member of the working poor is to be an anonymous donor, a nameless benefactor, to everyone else."
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Columnists from the United StatesHumanistsBloggers from the United StatesDemocratic socialistsSocialist feminists
Original Language: English
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Evaluation (p. 221)
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Barbara_Ehrenreich
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Barbara Ehrenreich
1941 – 2022
US-amerikanische Schriftstellerin und Kolumnistin
16 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Barbara Ehrenreich →
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