[MD] Ragged Trousered Philanthropists (Redux)

[ian glendinning]

Hi Arlo,

Talking of Tressell fans ... (thanks indeed to Ant for bringing
"Trousers" to our attention) ...

My dad, is 80 year old, very poor eyesight, as staunchly conservative
(in UK terms) as anyone I know ... I took the Gutenberg text and
created a very-large-print e-book of Trousers for him to read ... he'
s read and re-read it several times ... really liked it. He was most
surprised when I pointed out Trousers was practically a "sacred text"
in the UK Labour party, thanks to the Fabians and others. My equally
stauchly Labour mother was quite tickled by his response.

Thanks for the Nickel and Dimed link ... I'll take a look.
Ian

On 4/8/07, ARLO J BENSINGER JR <ajb102 at psu.edu> 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."
>
>
>
>
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