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Have you ever wondered why Republicans are so interested in encouraging people to volunteer in their communities? It’s because volunteers work for no pay. Republicans have been trying to get people to work for no pay for a long time.
George Carlin
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Interpretation

What this quote means

The quote critiques the tendency of certain politicians to promote volunteerism as a way to reduce the need for paid work.

George Carlin's quote highlights the irony in how certain political ideologies, particularly those aligned with Republicans in this context, promote volunteerism as a noble pursuit while simultaneously benefiting from the labor of those who work without compensation. It suggests that this advocacy is not purely altruistic but serves to diminish the importance of paid labor and the value of workers' rights.

Themes

VolunteerismPoliticsLaborWorkCommunity

In practice

Example use cases

This quote can be used in a political debate about the implications of volunteerism versus paid employment.

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This is a lttle prayer dedicated to the separation of church and state. I guess if they are going to force those kids to pray in schools they might as well have a nice prayer like this: Our Father who art in heaven, and to the republic for which it stands, thy kingdom come, one nation indivisible as in heaven, give us this day as we forgive those who so proudly we hail. Crown thy good into temptation but deliver us from the twilight's last gleaming. Amen and Awomen.
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Some people try to get out of jury duty by lying. You don't have to lie. Tell the judge the truth. Tell him you'd make a terrific juror because you can spot guilty people.
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Intelligence tests are biased toward the literate.
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