Perpective

I just finished reading Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America by Barbara Ehrenreich. The topic of the book is approached quite interestingly as Dr. Ehrenreich actually tried to live the life of the working poor by taking various 6-7 dollar an hour jobs (sometimes two at a time) and tryibg to make ends meet. The book was quite good, and very near the end was the following paragraph, written in regards to how the middle and upper class should feel about the working poor, which I found quite insightful:

"Guilt, you may be thinking warily. Isn't that what we're supposed to feel? But guilt doesn't go anywhere near far enough; the appropriate emotion is shame-shame at our own dependency, in this case, on the underpaid labor of others. 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 wil 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."

Consider that the next time you find yourself ready to derail "those people" out there living it up on your tax dollars, abusing welfare. Perhaps we're the ones who are abusing them...