What's that quote about wage inequity?
February 3, 2009 12:10 AM Subscribe
Quotefilter: "Workers of the world, unite!" No, that's not quite it. Looking for some words I only vaguely remember to include in my farewell message to my future-former co-wageslaves.
Looking for a quote from which I remember no specific words or phrases. Here's what I do have:
-Gist of it is that those who do repetitive and/or unpleasant work get paid the least, but that they deserve to be paid the most (because their work is, y'know, repetitive and/or unpleasant).
-I think, but am not sure, that the quote comes from the first half-or-so of the 20th century (or from someone famous for their actions therein). So Keynes or Orwell would fit (as would, say, a 1990s quote from Norman Mailer, but it's not him [I think]).
-I read it sometime between 1999-2001, and am pretty sure that it was referenced in an at-that-time-fairly-contemporary work of nonfiction. Probably (but not necessarily) popular nonfiction.
-Positive that it's a dude, not a lady. And, I think, an American.
Thanks, y'all.
Looking for a quote from which I remember no specific words or phrases. Here's what I do have:
-Gist of it is that those who do repetitive and/or unpleasant work get paid the least, but that they deserve to be paid the most (because their work is, y'know, repetitive and/or unpleasant).
-I think, but am not sure, that the quote comes from the first half-or-so of the 20th century (or from someone famous for their actions therein). So Keynes or Orwell would fit (as would, say, a 1990s quote from Norman Mailer, but it's not him [I think]).
-I read it sometime between 1999-2001, and am pretty sure that it was referenced in an at-that-time-fairly-contemporary work of nonfiction. Probably (but not necessarily) popular nonfiction.
-Positive that it's a dude, not a lady. And, I think, an American.
Thanks, y'all.
Since I'm not sure what you're looking for, and you're on a deadline, let me try shotgun approach:
The best lack all conviction, while the worst / Are full of passionate intensity. --Yeats
Or,
We peasants, artisans and others,
Enrolled amongst the sons of toil
Let's claim the earth henceforth for brothers
Drive the indolent from the soil.
On our flesh for too long has fed the raven
We've too long been the vultures prey.
But now farewell to spirit craven
The dawn brings in a brighter day.
-- The internationale
Or,
"If the workers took a notion they could stop all speeding trains; every ship upon the ocean they can tie with mighty chains." -- Joe Hill (Hillstrom)
Or,
"Language ought to be the joint creation of poets and manual workers." -- George Orwell (Blair)
posted by orthogonality at 4:08 AM on February 3, 2009
The best lack all conviction, while the worst / Are full of passionate intensity. --Yeats
Or,
We peasants, artisans and others,
Enrolled amongst the sons of toil
Let's claim the earth henceforth for brothers
Drive the indolent from the soil.
On our flesh for too long has fed the raven
We've too long been the vultures prey.
But now farewell to spirit craven
The dawn brings in a brighter day.
-- The internationale
Or,
"If the workers took a notion they could stop all speeding trains; every ship upon the ocean they can tie with mighty chains." -- Joe Hill (Hillstrom)
Or,
"Language ought to be the joint creation of poets and manual workers." -- George Orwell (Blair)
posted by orthogonality at 4:08 AM on February 3, 2009
It's not the specific quote you are looking for, but I couldn't resist posting the lyrics to "The Worker's Song" by the Dropkick Murphys. It really speaks to the spirit of what you are looking for:
Yeah, this one's for the workers who toil night and day
By hand and by brain, to earn your pay
Who for centuries long past for no more than your bread
Have bled for your countries and counted your dead
In the factories and mills, in the shipyards and mines
We've often been told to keep up with the times
For our skills are not needed, they've streamlined the job
And with sliderule and stopwatch our pride they have robbed
[Chorus:]
We're the first ones to starve, we're the first ones to die
The first ones in line for that pie-in-the-sky
And we're always the last when the cream is shared out
For the worker is working when the fat cat's about
And when the sky darkens and the prospect is war
Who's given a gun and then pushed to the fore
And expected to die for the land of our birth
Though we've never owned one lousy handful of earth?
[Chorus x3]
All of these things the worker has done
From tilling the fields to carrying the gun
We've been yoked to the plough since time first began
And always expected to carry the can
posted by Rock Steady at 4:28 AM on February 3, 2009 [1 favorite]
Yeah, this one's for the workers who toil night and day
By hand and by brain, to earn your pay
Who for centuries long past for no more than your bread
Have bled for your countries and counted your dead
In the factories and mills, in the shipyards and mines
We've often been told to keep up with the times
For our skills are not needed, they've streamlined the job
And with sliderule and stopwatch our pride they have robbed
[Chorus:]
We're the first ones to starve, we're the first ones to die
The first ones in line for that pie-in-the-sky
And we're always the last when the cream is shared out
For the worker is working when the fat cat's about
And when the sky darkens and the prospect is war
Who's given a gun and then pushed to the fore
And expected to die for the land of our birth
Though we've never owned one lousy handful of earth?
[Chorus x3]
All of these things the worker has done
From tilling the fields to carrying the gun
We've been yoked to the plough since time first began
And always expected to carry the can
posted by Rock Steady at 4:28 AM on February 3, 2009 [1 favorite]
This one has a similar sentiment:
" If a man tells you he got rich through hard work, ask him whose"
—Don Maquis
I also like this from Mark Twain:
"I do not like work even when another person does it."
and the classic from Ronald Regan:
" They say hard work never hurt anyone, but I figure why take a chance"
These are all taken From Sabotage in the American Workplace Ed Martin Sprouse which has a series of these sorts of things running down the side of the page. A couple more since I have the book down off the shelves,
"Maybe they call it take home pay because there is no other place you can afford to go with it"
—Franklin P. Jones
"A whore is a woman who takes more than she gives. A man who takes more than he gives is called a businessman."
—Charles Bukowski.
posted by tallus at 4:56 AM on February 3, 2009
" If a man tells you he got rich through hard work, ask him whose"
—Don Maquis
I also like this from Mark Twain:
"I do not like work even when another person does it."
and the classic from Ronald Regan:
" They say hard work never hurt anyone, but I figure why take a chance"
These are all taken From Sabotage in the American Workplace Ed Martin Sprouse which has a series of these sorts of things running down the side of the page. A couple more since I have the book down off the shelves,
"Maybe they call it take home pay because there is no other place you can afford to go with it"
—Franklin P. Jones
"A whore is a woman who takes more than she gives. A man who takes more than he gives is called a businessman."
—Charles Bukowski.
posted by tallus at 4:56 AM on February 3, 2009
George Bernard Shaw? There's the "captain and the cabin boy" argument in the prologue to Androcles and the Lion:
"But if in addition to this you desire to allow the two human souls which are inseparable from the captain and the cabin boy... to develop all their possibilities, then you may find the cabin boy costing rather more than the captain, because cabin boy's work does not do so much for the soul as captain's work. Consequently you will have to give him at least as much as the captain unless you definitely wish him to be a lower creature, in which case the sooner you are hanged as an abortionist the better."
And I think he revisited the argument in another prologue, but that's all I'm turning up online.
posted by ormondsacker at 11:03 AM on February 3, 2009
"But if in addition to this you desire to allow the two human souls which are inseparable from the captain and the cabin boy... to develop all their possibilities, then you may find the cabin boy costing rather more than the captain, because cabin boy's work does not do so much for the soul as captain's work. Consequently you will have to give him at least as much as the captain unless you definitely wish him to be a lower creature, in which case the sooner you are hanged as an abortionist the better."
And I think he revisited the argument in another prologue, but that's all I'm turning up online.
posted by ormondsacker at 11:03 AM on February 3, 2009
Response by poster: None of these are it; but I'm impressed so far ...
A couple of notes:
-It's prose, for sure. And it didn't strike me as literary, i.e. from a work of literature.
-I don't think it's by anyone you'd think of as radical. More Keynes than Joe Hill.
-It was not ha-ha funny, so no Twain, Buk &c.
I'm looking at quotes from JK Galbraith now, and none I've found are it, but the style and sentiment are a close match.
Grr, this is driving me crazy. But thank you all.
posted by snoe at 12:40 PM on February 3, 2009
A couple of notes:
-It's prose, for sure. And it didn't strike me as literary, i.e. from a work of literature.
-I don't think it's by anyone you'd think of as radical. More Keynes than Joe Hill.
-It was not ha-ha funny, so no Twain, Buk &c.
I'm looking at quotes from JK Galbraith now, and none I've found are it, but the style and sentiment are a close match.
Grr, this is driving me crazy. But thank you all.
posted by snoe at 12:40 PM on February 3, 2009
“Those who produce should have; but we know that those who produce the most - that is, those who work hardest, and at the most difficult and most menial tasks, have the least.”
Eugene V. Debs
posted by Benny Andajetz at 1:47 PM on February 3, 2009
Eugene V. Debs
posted by Benny Andajetz at 1:47 PM on February 3, 2009
"He becomes an appendage of the machine, and it is only the most simple, most monotonous, and most easily acquired knack, that is required of him."
-Karl Marx in The Communist Manifesto
posted by sun_also_rises at 3:11 PM on February 3, 2009
-Karl Marx in The Communist Manifesto
posted by sun_also_rises at 3:11 PM on February 3, 2009
Response by poster: The Debs quote is closest. (But not it.) Thanks, everyone -- I need to sit quietly and reconstruct what I was reading at the time.
posted by snoe at 1:47 PM on February 5, 2009
posted by snoe at 1:47 PM on February 5, 2009
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by rwhe at 12:16 AM on February 3, 2009