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Barbara Ehrenreich

Barbara Ehrenreich Quotes

American Political figure

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Famous Barbara Ehrenreich Quotes

“Middle-class Americans, like myself and my fellow seekers, have been raised with the old-time Protestant expectation that hard work will be rewarded with material comfort and security. This has never been true of the working class, most of which toils away at wages incommensurate with the effort required. And now, the sociologists agree, it is increasingly untrue of the educated middle class that stocks our corporate bureaucracies.”

WorkEffortRewardsEmploymentMiddle ClassWorking ClassWorkingAmericansProtestant Work Ethic
Book:Bait and Switch: The (Futile) Pursuit of the American Dream
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“Historians differ on when the consumer culture came to dominate American culture. Some say it was in the twenties, when advertising became a major industry and the middle class bought radios to hear the ads and cars to get to the stores. ... But there is no question that the consumer culture had begun to crowd out all other cultural possibilities by the years following World War II.”

WorldYearsWarCultureClassMiddleCarPossibilityIndustryMajorsTwentiesRadioCrowdsFollowingStoresAdvertisingConsumersWar Of The WorldsMiddle ClassHistorianAdsWorld War IiWorld War IConsumerismAmerican CultureConsumer Culture
Book:FEAR OF FALLING
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“In a process that had begun in the 1980s and suddenly accelerated in the early 2000s ... [t]he peaks of great wealth grew higher, rising up beyond the clouds, while the valleys of poverty sank lower into perpetual shadow. The once broad plateau of the middle class eroded away into a narrow ledge, with the white-knuckled occupants holding on for dear life.”

ProcessWealthWhiteClassPovertyMiddleGrewHigherShadowDearCloudsRisingMiddle ClassBroadsValleysPerpetualHolding OnRising UpLedgesDear Life
Book:Going to Extremes: Notes from a Divided Nation
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