[MD] Ragged Trousered Philanthropists (Redux)

[ARLO J BENSINGER JR]

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."