Arlo and all, Talking of Barbara Ehrenreich, I see she was on the BBC's "Start the Week" this morning talking about her "Dancing in the Streets", along with Jeffrey Sachs talking about his upcoming Reith lectures on "new enlightenment" in order to avoid global disasters inlcuding world war. (Interesting reference to JFK asking Americans to look at themselves about the values they use to make decisions, post Cuban missile crisis.)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/factual/starttheweek.shtml Ian On 4/8/07, ARLO J BENSINGER JR <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > All, > > Fans of Tressell's "The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists" (and who shouldn't > be? > for those unfamiliar it is available free at Project Gutenberg > (http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/3608)), will likely see the connection to the > book "Nickel and Dimed" by Barbara Ehrenreich. (Thanks to Ant for introducing > me to Tressell) > > An excerpt. > > "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 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." > > A short, but succinct, summary of this book is available at Wikipedia > (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nickel_and_Dimed), which ends with a > counter-claim to the conservative disdain for welfare recipients "living like > parasites off the labor of others". Instead, she posits, it is WE who are the > parasites, living off the "generosity" of the working poor. > > "She concludes by responding to the frequent claim that low-wage workers, > recipients of government or charitable services like welfare, food, and > healthcare, are simply living off the generosity of others. Instead, she > suggests, we live off their generosity." > > > > > moq_discuss mailing list > Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc. > http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org > Archives: > http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/ > http://moq.org.uk/pipermail/moq_discuss_archive/ moq_discuss mailing list Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc. http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org Archives: http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/ http://moq.org.uk/pipermail/moq_discuss_archive/
