I hope you forwarded the "... Ehrenreich is an amazing talent. _Fear of Falling_ and _Blood Rites_ blew me away..." part as well...
:-)
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>>Does this guy realize that 80% of Americans (and I don't know how
>>many Brits) do their own housework? It's not just some weird
>>crypto-Christian gesture on my part... As for those who "help"
>>immigrant women by giving them jobs: If the idea is to help, why
>>not just give them the money and do the housework yourself?
She should say that 80% of American *women* do their own housework. I haven't been socialized into thinking that I am some sort of failure, not fulfilling an important element of my species-being, if I don't do my own vacuuming. (I should note that I *have* been socialized into thinking that I am some sort of failure, not fulfilling an important element of my species-being, if I don't do my own algebraic derivations.)
On rethinking it, I think I need to concede that she does have a point: Hiring people to clean your house does potentially undermine feminist solidarity by creating a boss/worker relationship of domination. But the neoclassical economist POV is valid as well: the relationship is not just one of domination, but also of cooperation--mutually-beneficial exchange: you clean my house so that I can spend time doing things I enjoy more, and I pay you money so that you can buy things as a consumer.
On balance, however, I think the second is far more important than the first. My wife and I hire Karla Monducci for $20 an hour for 4 hours a week. I can't see how firing her and adding an hour a day of extra after-dinner cleaning to my wife's and my schedules would make any of us happier or better off.
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The sneer in the scare quotes in the "As for those who 'help' immigrant women by giving them jobs..." sentence is contemptible. Ehrenreich is much too smart to be excused for being so stupid. But, as I said, she is not a neoclassical economist: she can't grasp that while diminishing the demand to pollute is a good thing, diminishing the demand for relatively low-education-level workers is a bad thing.
Brad DeLong