The Working Poor as Philanthropists

Journalist Barbara Ehrenreich, in  her 1996  book Nickled and Dimed, investigated many of the difficulties low wage workers face.  Ehrenreich documented those troubles by spending months undercover.  Foremost among the problems were:

• the hidden costs of shelter.  The poor often spend more on daily hotel costs than they would on renting an apartment, since they can't afford a security deposit and first-and-last month fees.
• food.  The poor have to buy food that is both more expensive and less healthy than if they had access to refrigeration and appliances needed to cook.

Ehrenreich concludes that low-wage workers, recipients of government services like welfare, food, and health care, do not deserve the appellation welfare queen.  These workers do far more than live off the generosity of others. Ehrenreich suggests we live off their generosity:

When someone works for less pay than they can live on ... they make a great sacrifice for you .... The "working poor" ... 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.