More Word News
'Hard working'. This has been widely used in the American election - hard working taxpayers/middle classes etc. Now I notice Guido has fallen for it - 'the hard work of Britain's 28 million taxpayers.' This is empty flattery. Any large enough human sample will contain approximately the same proportions of hard workers and soft slackers. Being a taxpayer or middle class does not mean you are necessarily hard working. Rhetorically, it's a way of smuggling in a consoling sense of entitlement, as in, 'I am middle class, therefore I work hard, therefore I am entitled...'
# posted by Bryan Appleyard : 7:44 AM
4 Comments:
At October 08, 2008 8:27 AM,
passer by said…
Under the fiat currency system the unborn get the bill, which is even more immoral.
At October 08, 2008 10:36 AM,
ian russell said…
what's the point of being middle-class if you still have to work hard? they don't know what hard work is - a few late hours at the office, I expect. (is that dash all right, boss?)
At October 08, 2008 12:18 PM,
malty said…
The Japanese have a weird and wonderfull work ethic, if a department head works untill midnight, so does the entire department, even though they have nothing to do and sit around reading newspapers, this to save the face of head poobah.
At October 08, 2008 4:29 PM,
Duck said…
Except in America the middle class actually does work hard. But it's really just a way of saying "working" voters, since if you work, the default mode is hard.
This doesn't apply to socialist economies, of course.
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