[MD] Ragged Trousered Philanthropists (Redux)

[pholden at davtv.com]

Quoting ARLO J BENSINGER JR <ajb102 at psu.edu>:

> 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."

The underlying premise is that low wage workers should earn more than determined
by the marketplace. This means earnings should be determined by some other measure.
The questions then become, "By what other measure?" and "Who decides?" Then we're
right back in the socialist soup again. 






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