Being on Break also means I've actually been reading the most recent Harvard Magazine.

[hermionesviolin]

I was researching Bluetooth today (very cursory, like pulling up the cell phone website and clicking on Accessories to see what the options were like) and dude, phrases like "Up to 8 Hours Talk Time"?  And for under a hundred dollars.  I may need to get me one of those.  (Though I asked my brother and he said: "a headset does prolong the life of a

Comments

[anonymous]

I can say, "no! no maids!" and clean my own damn house, replicating the unpaid domestic labor that reifies capitalist patriarchy's place for women, or I can exploit poor women who may or may not mind the exploiting depending how they view the interaction.

The easy economist's reply is that since your latina maid has agreed to this arrangement, it is almost certainly better than her alternatives. She has worse alternatives than you--but you are now making her better off than she would be if you didn't employ her.

The harder-edged reply is, "Raise her pay until it's high enough for you to stop feeling guilty. Your guilt doesn't pay her rent."

(Or you could give money to some political/activist organization, where it would probably go to people like you, but you could tell yourself it's eliminating the root causes of oppression so it's actually really in the long run going to the poor and oppressed, and you can feel righteous.)

RAS