Can we get a moratorium on parents exploiting their children for kudos and profit in the world of pop culture?
Pop culture and parental exploitation narratives
Tag: exploitation
Can We Stop Belittling People for Being Stuck in Exploitative Systems?
I drink an incredible volume of tea. While the women above might not have personally picked tea that I have drunk, they are part of the army of low-paid workers who labour in tea plantations across Asia, picking for between a dollar and two dollars a day, which is not much even when adjusted for […]
Everest and Exploitation
This year marked the most horrific mass disaster on Everest since 1996, when eight people died in a single blizzard. In this case, 16 Sherpas died in an avalanche, generating headlines around the world and an open discussion of the exploitation of Nepalese guides on the mountain — though it’s a subject that people have […]
All Worker Deaths Should Matter
On 19 March of this year, Mendocino County Sheriff’s Deputy Ricky Del Fiorentino was ambushed by a suspect just outside of Cleone in a fatal encounter. One week later, I attended his memorial, an event that drew law enforcement officers from across California as well as from Eugene, Oregon (the suspect’s crime spree had originated […]
Exploitation on Vacation
On of my favourite scenes in Hugh Lofting’s Doctor Dolittle books, a series by no means necessarily socially progressive or always right-on, is one in which the doctor’s sister catches him in one of the unsavoury parts of London while she’s out slumming. There’s a great moment between the two where the doctor’s wearing filthy […]
Seeking Alternatives To Alternative Financing
Alternative financing, occupying a highly lucrative financial grey area, is a concept alien to those who never need it, and a lifeline to those who are sometimes forced to rely upon it. Passing through the streets in most urban areas, you’ll see an array of shady-looking businesses with payday loan signs in their windows, promising […]
Blogging Against Disablism Day 2012: The Exploitation of Home Health Workers
The happenstance that puts Blogging Against Disablism Day on May Day means that every year, I get to talk about intersections between two of my favourite issues: labour rights and disability rights. Last year, I looked at people with disabilities in the workplace, and the structures that keep us underemployed and poor. This year, I’m […]
Medical Credit: Preying on the Vulnerable and Uninformed
The medical credit industry in the United States is booming, with a variety of programs offering financing for emergency, routine, and elective procedures. In some cases, clinics actively partner with these programs to offer in-house financing to patients, promising to take care of payment arrangements and administration as long as the patient signs along the […]
A Return to Old Ways: Big Loans Are Back (Were They Ever Gone?)
Big loans, financial publications inform us, are back. Indeed, they are even bargains; you, too, can pick up a jumbo loan at appealingly low interest, assuming you meet the standards to access the credit market, which is not in fact a given. The return of jumbo loans is being heralded in some corners as a […]
Exploitation Goes By Many Names
One of the consequences of the social devaluation of disability is the devaluation of care providers, at the same time they are lauded as brave and heroic for taking on the ‘burden’ of disability; this is seen especially starkly with parents of disabled children, who often encounter the attitude that they are superhuman for not […]