How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Section.Paragraph)
Quote #7
[And] privately he meditated that it was agreeable to have it known throughout the neighborhood that he was so prosperous that this son never worked around the house. (6.3.1).
On the one hand, Babbitt wishes that his son Ted would pick up the slack and start doing more chores around the house. On the other hand, he likes having everyone know that he's well off enough to pay servants instead of making his son do anything. So yeah… he cares about what other people think.
Quote #8
"No, what I fight in Zenith is standardization of thought, and, of course, the traditions of competition. The real villains of the piece are the clean, kind, industrious Family Men who use every known brand of trickery and cruelty to insure the prosperity of their cubs." (7.5.6)
Seneca Doane might be a scary, scary socialist, but he's not trying to go around and ruin the world for everyone. In fact, the thing he objects to the most about Zenith's society is the way that all the people in the upper and middle classes have the exact same opinions on nearly everything. In his mind, it's impossible to have a good democracy when there's no one speaking out against the way things are.
Quote #9
"Just the same, you don't want to forget prohibition is a mighty good thing for the working-classes. Keeps 'em from wasting their money and lowering their productiveness." (8.2.76)
Nearly all the men at Babbitt's social clubs agree that the prohibition of alcohol is an infringement on their personal freedoms. But at the same time, they think that it's a good thing the lower classes can't drink, since this will make them less productive in their work.