GK Chesterton: Rich Paying Poor Workers
on Monday, October 25, 2010GK Chesterton Money Quotation saying he believes that the rich man is in an untenable position when it comes to setting rates of pay for the working class poor. GK Chesterton said:
“Pathetic dilemma of the rich man, who has to keep the poor man just stout enough to do the work and just thin enough to have to do it” — GK Chesterton
This quote by G.K. Chesterton seems to be critiquing the exploitative relationship between the wealthy class and the working class. It suggests that the rich have a “pathetic dilemma” of needing to keep poor workers just healthy enough to do labor but not so healthy that they don’t feel compelled to work out of necessity.
The quote implies a delicate balancing act for the rich of maintaining the poor in a state of subsistence where they are strong enough for work but still driven to do it due to lack of alternatives and a threat of poverty if they do not. Overall, Chesterton appears to be denouncing how the poor are deliberately kept in a condition of bare sustenance by those in power solely to serve economic ends through their work.
Birthday: May 29, 1874 – Death: June 14, 1936