“When someone works for less pay than she can live on—when, for example, she goes hungry so you can eat more cheaply and conveniently—than she has made great sacrifices for you, she has made you a gift of some part of her abilities, her health, and her life. The “working poor,”[…]are in fact the major philanthropists of 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 stocks will be high. To be a member of the working poor is to be an anonymous donor, a nameless benefactor, to everyone else.”
- Nickel and Dimed - Barbra Ehrenreich pg 221
(via trixclibrarian)