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Barbara Ehrenreich Quotes about Work

All Barbara Ehrenreich Quotes Abortion Atheism Attitude Children Country Culture Earth Effort Ethics Expectations Feminism Home Lying Military Motherhood Pain Positive Thinking Poverty Science War Work quotes
no job, no matter how lowly, is truly 'unskilled.

no job, no matter how lowly, is truly 'unskilled.

Barbara Ehrenreich
Jobs, Work, Matter
Barbara Ehrenreich (2010). “Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America”, p.193, Macmillan

Labor is like motherhood to most of our political leaders: a calling so fine and noble that it would be sullied by talk of vulgar, mundane things like pay.

Barbara Ehrenreich
Work, Motherhood, Leader

People who just pretend to have a positive attitude may be more acceptable, but they will still attract according to how they are really vibrating- the energy they are emanating will attract their circumstances.

Barbara Ehrenreich
Attitude, Work, People
Barbara Ehrenreich (2006). “Bait and Switch: The (Futile) Pursuit of the American Dream”, p.84, Macmillan

Among other things, [books by Bruce Doyle III and Mike Hernacki] explain the importance of the "winning attitude" I have been urged to adopt: a positive attitude "attracts" or "fulfils", depending on which author's weird science you go with, postiive results, with little or no action on your part required. Herein, too, lies the answer to the question I once posed ...: would it be enough just to fake a winning attitude? No way, according to Doyle.

Barbara Ehrenreich
Attitude, Work, Lying

As a general rule, when something gets elevated to apple-pie status in the hierarchy of American values, you have to suspect that its actual monetary value is skidding toward zero. Take motherhood: nobody ever thought of putting it on a moral pedestal until some brash feminists pointed out, about a century ago, that the pay is lousy and the career ladder nonexistent. Same thing with work: would we be so reverent about the 'work ethic' if it wasn't for the fact that the average working stiff's hourly pay is shrinking, year by year.

Barbara Ehrenreich
Zero, Work, Motherhood
Ms., Oct. 1986

Personally, I have nothing against work, particularly when performed, quietly and unobtrusively, by someone else. I just don't happen to think it's an appropriate subject for an 'ethic.'

Barbara Ehrenreich
Work, Thinking, Ethics
Barbara Ehrenreich (1990). “WORST YEARS OF OUR LIVES”, Pantheon

The obvious liberal rejoinders come to mind: What about the child whose home is hit by a bomb? Did she have some bomb-shaped thoughtform that brought ruin down on her head? And did my [fired white-collar workers] boot-camp mates cause the layoffs that drove them out of their jobs by "vibrating" at a layoff-related frequency? It seems inexcusably cruel to tell people who have reach some kind of personal nadir that their probem is entirely of their own making.

Barbara Ehrenreich
Jobs, Children, Work

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