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Antiwork

Don’t be Barbara

When my mother was in a nursing home there was a lovely woman named Barbara who sat by a window and smiled. When I asked how she was she always smiled and said “I'm warm and I have 3 meals a day; how could I not be happy?” I thought she was a bright light in a dreary place. Then I met her nephew, who explained that she had never married and worked in the factory in town for fifty years, paid dues to the company-controlled union, and after fifty years retired making minimum wage. And was often cold and hungry.


When my mother was in a nursing home there was a lovely woman named Barbara who sat by a window and smiled. When I asked how she was she always smiled and said “I'm warm and I have 3 meals a day; how could I not be happy?” I thought she was a bright light in a dreary place.

Then I met her nephew, who explained that she had never married and worked in the factory in town for fifty years, paid dues to the company-controlled union, and after fifty years retired making minimum wage.

And was often cold and hungry.

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