Quotable: Barbara Ehrenreich on the problem of “positive thinking”

“One of the major sources of misery in the world is poverty. We can do one of two things. We can tell poor people they need to change their attitudes, and there’s a whole industry of that kind of thing — motivational speakers that tell people to get over their bad attitudes towards wealth so it will just come to them.

Or we can say, ‘What’s the cause of this? How are we going to get together and do something about it?’ And I come down on that side.”

–Barbara Ehrenreich, at Alternet