The 'working poor,' as they are approvingly termed, are in fact the major philanthropists of our society.
The "discovery" of poverty at the beginning of the 1960s was something like the "discovery" of America almost five hundred years earlier. In the case of each of these exotic terrains, plenty of people were on the site before the discoverers ever arrived.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote highlights the misconception of discovering poverty as if it were a new phenomenon, akin to the discovery of America, when in reality it has long existed.
Barbara Ehrenreich's quote critiques the tendency to frame the recognition of poverty as a novel revelation, similar to the colonial narrative of America being 'discovered.' It underscores the idea that issues of poverty have always existed, with countless individuals experiencing its effects long before policymakers or society acknowledged it. This observation calls attention to the need for a deeper understanding of social issues that are often overlooked until they gain public attention.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
This quote could be used in a speech about social justice to highlight historical misunderstandings.
More from Barbara Ehrenreich
All quotes →The secret of the truly successful, I believe, is that they learned very early in life how not to be busy. They saw through that adage, repeated to me so often in childhood, that anything worth doing is worth doing well. The truth is, many things are worth doing only in the most slovenly, halfhearted fashion possible, and many other things are not worth doing at all.
From the point of view of the pharmaceutical industry, the AIDS problem has already been solved. After all, we already have a drug which can be sold at the incredible price of $8,000 an annual dose, and which has the added virtue of not diminishing the market by actually curing anyone.
Well I do think there are people who are habitually negative and depressed and take the opposite approach because they imagine the worst, and their minds become dominated by that. They let their own emotions and expectations transform their perceptions of the world.
Some of us still get all weepy when we think about the Gaia Hypothesis, the idea that earth is a big furry goddess-creature who resembles everybody's mom in that she knows what's best for us. But if you look at the historical record - Krakatoa, Mt. Vesuvius, Hurricane Charley, poison ivy, and so forth down the ages - you have to ask yourself: Whose side is she on, anyway?
I would never call myself a cancer survivor because I think it devalues those who do not survive. There's this whole mythology that people bravely battle their cancer and then they become survivors. Well, the ones who don't survive may be just as brave, you know, just as courageous, wonderful people.
Similar quotes
Death in itself is nothing; but we fear to be we know not what, we know not where.
Money doesn't mind if we say it's evil, it goes from strength to strength. It's a fiction, an addiction, and a tacit conspiracy.
Every religious tradition is rooted in mysteries I don't pretend to understand, including claims about what happens after we die. But this I know for sure: as long as we're alive, choosing resurrection is always worth the risk.
Every person you meet is waging his or her own war against a callous universe that is plotting against them.
Let us be very careful that we never exalt any minister, or sermon, or book, or friend above the Word of God.
Past humanity is not only implicit in each new man born but is contained in him. Humanity is an ever-widening spiral and life is the beam that plays briefly on each succeeding ring. All humanity from its beginning to its end is already present but the beam has not yet played beyond you.