Temporarily embarrassed millionaires
Dan here….Somehow this makes sense:
“Socialism never took root in America because the poor see themselves not as an exploited proletariat but as temporarily embarrassed millionaires.” – John Steinbeck
Relevant and even prescient commentary on news, politics and the economy.
That quote explains poor republicans.
Absolutely 100% true. The lower middle class and upper lower class believes they have the ability to migrate into the upper class. They don’t want to take away benefits from the rich because they think they can become rich.
It might also explain the rural/urban divide. Rural people have less relevant comparison points for relative income etc, and may also be more likely to have minimum housing levels etc. Would be interesting to see relative asset levels of rural people living at or below the poverty line and urban people with the same income levels, even adjusted for relative cost of living. The same income for cost of living might make you homeless in the city, but if you have property in a rural area, at least you won’t be that.
The identification paradigm goes only so far in explaining the adherence of the working class to the ideology of the wealthy. More likely the the conservatives have recognized that social issues are more important to a vast number of their less wealthy brethren and have been using those issues as the hook to a generally political strategy. There is a great deal of money behind anti-abortion, anti-gun control and anti-gay propaganda. Even the small government theme is put within a social policy frame of reference. Anti-union campaigns bridge the gap, but still have a primarily social tint.
The quote makes little sense except those with a political agenda..