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Phrase: The great unwashed
This one today may be old-fashioned, but it is highly relevant today.
The gap between the haves and the have-nots is widening almost daily.
As a result, most of us in the middle class are being looked at once again as the great unwashed.
Yep, we are the ordinary common man and woman without much money, power, social status or hope of ever achieving them.
Do you know why things are like that?
The bigwigs continue to take from us and never give as much back.
Many of you have invested in stocks and other financial instruments.
How’s that working out for you?
Do you feel any richer?
No?
That’s because you, my friend, are a member of the great unwashed.
If you invest $100,000 with a 2% annual service fee, the company you invest with will, over 40 years, take $66,000 in compounded service charges.
If you don’t believe me, go through your statements, look at all the hidden fees (Junk Fees) you pay and work out how much money you’ll have for your retirement.
You won’t have enough to purchase soap and shampoo at the same time.
Let’s put it that way.
Anyways, I’ll leave that up to you.
The term the great unwashed was coined in 1830 in Victorian England by the novelist Edward Bulwer-Lytton to refer to the masses, the regular people of society.
Back then, the upper classes had no respect for any people struggling to live hand-to-mouth.
These days, people will sometimes use the term the great unwashed in a self-deprecating way.
They may say something like, “I have no money or power. I’m just a member of the great unwashed.”
Flesch-Kincaid Readability Test
This post is understandable by someone with at least a 7th-grade education (age 12).
On the Flesch-Kincaid reading-ease test, this post scores 77.
The easier a passage is to read, the higher the score on a scale of 0 – 100.