Change is seldomn spare

[jakeaidan]

I've been kicking around the following theory for a while. It's still somewhat loose around the edges...and around the middle...and the places in between

Comments

[nihilistech]

I've been thinking a lot about this sort of thing for a while and do have some thoughts regarding the subject. I do think Americans would have some difficulty with the bread and roses concept; economic capitalism has sunk so deeply into our thoughts that people talk about having a "productive weekend" as though it's a good thing -- the word productivity, a term of capital and product has become synonymous with good and worthwhile. See also "productive citizen". Gee, what about happy, thoughtful, involved?

There's more to it, of course, but (snerk) I don't have time to go into it at the moment.

[nihilistech]

Also, there's an inherent myth in the idea that the employee who works more gets paid more. Someone working 60-hours a week at two minimum-wage jobs doesn't make as much as someone working 60 hours a week at a high-tech company. And only one of those two people will even have the option of thinking or talking about "work/life balance". It will be another class stratifier.

[rjl20]

Was NPR arguing that "Bread and Roses" was unique to the UK labor movement? Because if so, I hate to break it to them, but the poem "Bread and Roses" was published in 1911 in The American Magazine, was written by the American poet James Oppenheim, and has long been associated (if erroneously) with the 1912 textile strike in Lawrence, Massachusetts.

(And the strikers in 1912 seem to have had the option of thinking, talking and doing something about work/life balance.)

[sculpin]

(Just to clarify, the mere association with the 1912 "Bread and Roses" textile strike isn't erroneous, but it would be erroneous to say that the slogan from the strike was the origin of the phrase.)

[rjl20]

By the way, there's a fascinating history of the "bread and roses" slogan and poem at http://www.boondocksnet.com/labor/history/bread_and_roses_history.html

[rjl20]

A further interesting (to me, anyway) side note:

"Bread and butter" unionism is largely the product of Samuel Gompers, first president of the AFL. "Bread and roses" unionism was largely the domain of the IWW and other socialist/collectivist labor unions, as personified by William "Big Bill" Haywood (a founding member of the Wobblies).

Gompers was born in London. Haywood was born in Salt Lake City.

http://www.americanheritage.com/articles/magazine/ah/1998/5/1998_5_22.shtml

[mistwolf]

Very interesting read, and I do think you have a point. Australia, from what I can see, is in some ways going the other way, from 'bread and roses' to 'bread and butter' and I don't like it.

[iterationzero]

wouldn't the type of youth violence also play a factor? gang violence in urban centers vs. school shootings.