This is not a poem

I came across this paragraph in an article I have just read. I apologize if anyone takes offense at my publishing this here. It is breathtaking in its vision and I feel, stands alone on both it's content and structural levels. It is a very worthy contemplation and meditation.

By Barbara Ehrenreich in "Nickel and Dimed" in which she argues it's those low-wage workers who are essentially paying for everyone else's prosperity with their cheap labor:


"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."



Essay by josephus The PoetBay support member heart!
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Written on 2015-04-14 at 12:18

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Lawrence Beck The PoetBay support member heart!
Marx called the situation Ehrenreich describes "the extraction of surplus value," wherein labor produces a certain amount of value, but only is allowed to retain a portion of it. The rest goes to capitalists, who grow ever richer as laborers grow ever poorer. It's a pretty sweet situation for those on top, but it's not sustainable. Working at Target, I live in this world. I'm lucky to be married to someone who doesn't. Many of my coworkers don't share my good fortune.
2015-04-18


Anly Stede The PoetBay support member heart!
So true and so well said. I can't add more to this eloquent description of the situation!
2015-04-15



This is one reason why I'll never understand why so many people in the U.S. are against immigration. Who do they think washes their sheets and manicures their lawns? A great many non-immigrants think they're above such labor.

The so-called 'service economy' has done little more than make the vast majority of us into servants.

I realize that not everyone thinks like that, but it does seem so.
2015-04-14


Elle The PoetBay support member heart!
I think that is very apt, we all have a function and although I would prefer in an ideal world for us to be all equal, that cannot happen, we will always need the workers, the doers, the thinkers and sadly the plain idle - it gives nobility to the most mundane and allows privilege to realise that everyone has a role and all roles in the functioning of our lives are important. Treat everyone with humanity and respect

Elle x
2015-04-14


Bob
I'd say it's not a voluntary gift but often a choice made under duress or at gunpoint. Circumstances forces them to do more for less.
2015-04-14


ken d williams The PoetBay support member heart!
Thus it has always been so. The pore , those who exist from one day to the next day. Expreace hunger , all to often and regally go with out. Are the first to suffer , cut backs & all. And the very last to get the crumdes off the trical down , sweeping of the tables of those last to have cut backs , such as they are fore them. AND ALWAYS the first to benefit from the upturns! Thus it has always been so!
Ken D Williams. GRRRR
2015-04-14


Jamsbo Rockda The PoetBay support member heart!
The insight in that passage is incredible. It opens your eyes to the true nature of the working poor. Which is not only poverty but sacrifice. Thanks for posting this.
2015-04-14