4:59am August 4, 2013

“Self-sufficiency, while highly prized in our culture, has a dark side: it leaves little empathy to spare for those who cannot survive on their own.”

Jennifer M. Silva, author of Coming Up Short, on the “hidden injuries", or difficult-to-measure social costs, of deindustrialization and declining blue-collar jobs via Young and Isolated - NYTimes.com (via ginnytea)

It also perpetuates the myth that any of us are truly 100% independent, which is simply not the case. Everyone survives through interdependence, but various cultures value certain forms of interdependence over certain other forms.

(via thisisabledprivilege)

Interdependence is erased by contempt for the lower classes and faceless people in other countries who provide the things we use in our daily lives. It’s not considered “really" a contribution because those people have to do those things. It’s their job, and we feel entitled to it, because they have to be there or else they can’t survive. It’s perfectly acceptable to sneer at a fast food worker and say, “Get a real job,“ but no one wonders who’s going to serve them their food if all those people did get real jobs.

And of course, the only contributions anyone recognizes are the ones that make money. :l

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