“Nickel and Dimed” and “Bait and Switch” writer Barbara Ehrenreich has died at the age of 81. The muckraking author challenged conventional thinking about class.
As per her son Ben Ehrenreich, “She was, she made clear, ready to go.”
“She was never much for thoughts and prayers, but you can honour her memory by loving one another, and by fighting like hell.”
Raised in a union household, Barbara Ehrenreich was a Montana native who regularly turned out books and newspaper and magazine articles.
The prolific author was a longtime proponent of liberal causes from economic equality to abortion rights.
Calling the working poor “the major philanthropists of our society,” she worked in minimum wage jobs.
While family rules included “never cross a picket line and never vote Republican”, Barbara Ehrenreich challenged the very idea of an American dream.
The former journalist, who suffered a stroke, wrote, “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,” she added.
(With inputs from agencies)
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