Someone has said that the problem in the US is that it is filled with temporarily embarrassed billionaires. A third of the population thinks they are one slot pull or scratch off ticket away from being the next Bezos.
If we just work hard and lay off the avocado toast, we too can be like those who have never worked hard or had to forego the avocado toast. It makes sense if you don't think about it.
Indeed. The American poor are convinced the only way to get a better life is to get rich, not to help each other. Gold-rush, frontier-mentality in a supposedly civilised society.
But it wasn't always like that and doesn't need to be: the US gov imposed almost 90% tax on the wealthy during the Roosevelt years. The frontier individualism was proliferated only by the reagonomics of 80'ies, wrapped up as a nostalgic return to an America that never existed: Reagan-style MAGA.
It's a comfort that we've seen these things before: both Reagan and the Bushes sidelined international law, fraternised with big business, and committed spectacular failures in pursuing US dominance. Each time the left grew stronger. The real difference is that Trump says the quiet parts out loud.
John Steinbeck once said that socialism never took root in America because the poor see themselves not as an exploited proletariat but as temporarily embarrassed millionaires.
Ronald Wright, A Short History of Progress
Comments
Is really "Me First".
Like children.
Ronald Wright, A Short History of Progress