Well yeah. And no. I’ll one up you. Right now homeless and tent cities and immigration are big issues among the middle class. THATS how the rich see you. You are blight always wants more money but don’t want to “do the work” to get it. You are potential thrives and criminals that are a danger to taking what is theirs. You built your ugly homes and pile your crap up and west your rags and have poor manners and ruin the ambiance and make things ugly and crowded. You are the person who thinks you are entitled to “basic rights” and “quality of life” but are taking up resources and brining crime and problems to them. Your culture annoys them, your perceived laziness. That’s how so many feel about the unhomed and poor and immigrants- do the middle class can understand how the rich feel about them on the whole. If you aren’t to be loathed you are to be pitied and given whatever crumbs they feel they can spare to feel good but not actually cause themselves problems.
The blue collar middle class worker that thinks the poor family or immigrant family needs to make their own way and lift themselves up or improve their own situation without leaning on what others have built- the “if i can do it you can do it” attitude? Yeah. Rich people have that too. The average American man makes $33k a year. All you need to be in the top 10 or so percent of earners is to make around $75k, do you know how easy it is to make $75k? why are most men making less than $30k? You don’t even need a college degree- you don’t even need a diploma to make $75k.
So you’ve got people who make $50k but they have millions from stocks, you’ve got guys making $250k or more, or guys like Elon Musk or Steve Jobs, Mark Z who can make $250k an hour- if they can do it- why are guys only pulling $30,50,75k? If they worked hard and wanted to- couldn’t they do it too? Aren’t the reasons they say they can’t just “excuses?”
Now, I don’t believe that, but I also don’t believe the poor or unhomed or immigrants need to “lift themselves up by the bootstraps” or are inherently lazy or “want a free ride.” I do better than the average salary by several bits- but I’ve also been without a home living in a tent, so I have literally lived at far ends of the spectrum as far as wealth goes and have that perspective to speak from either experience. That said- the abuses and failings of the rich aren’t unique to the rich- they are human failings. That is the story of revolution told over and over in history. A cycle. “Down with the king, king live the king.” We topple and tear down the rich and elite and replace them with “champions of the people” who proceed to become the elite and rich. France, America, etc etc. rebelled against monarchy and the inequity between the common man and the rulers to do what? Do you think think that presidents don’t command wealth and power far beyond that of common men?
Senators? Etc etc. most people that bitch about the rich wouldn’t behave so differently if they were rich. Or they wouldn’t likely be rich for long. We generally don’t like having people standing on our necks but most people are fine with or aspire to be the ones standing on the necks of others. The “average” American is in the top 1% of global wealth and lifestyle. As we complain about the selfish excess of the rich we ARE the global rich. As we complain about their elitism and trying to keep the “regular joes” from living and working and having opportunity in their “gated world” so many of us try to keep different genders or sexualities or races or nationalities from competing and living and having opportunity and access to our worlds. That’s literally what the indigestion debate is about.
People coming from a place without access who want themselves and their families to have better work opportunities and safer neighborhoods and better education etc. Then someone says: “they weren’t born into the right to this zip code. I don’t want their kids taking resources and changing the environment at my kids school. I don’t want to compete for jobs against them..” and we use the power we have to hold them down so we can keep what we have or gain more. Most people don’t feel privileged. They don’t feel powerful. In a world where middle class families struggle to pay bills and police and politicians and the wealthy and our bosses have connections and can move mountains we feel that if we had privilege we wouldn’t be working and struggling so hard. That’s not true though. We can’t really see our privilege until we encounter people with less privilege than us. Most of the time we fail to see it though, or we discount them so completely as humans that we don’t think having power over
“Those people” or advantage counts as “privilege” or power at all. “How can I have privilege when I make $40k a year and drive a 15 year old car…?” You do. It’s just that your perspective is twisted. As said I’ve lived in a tent. I’ve made minimum wage and I’ve made less than minimum wage. I make quite a bit more than that now. In fact when I look at my bills and my relatively simple lifestyle I sometimes think I couldn’t live on only $75k a year- then I remember I’ve lived on $0 before. Not so long ago I had nothing to my name, not even a car, and I was making $20k a year due to some life events. So how now can I not picture living on $75k, the top 10% or so of earnings? Because you get used to what you have. You get used to a lifestyle. Things you don’t need become necessities.
It’s the same if you make $30k a year. You might feel like you have things badly but there are people in the world who get by with much less than you. They have families. They live and laugh and have hobbies. They have a different lifestyle, one maybe you wouldn’t want if you were given the choice- but they do fine.
There are people on the streets with families. People figure it out, so how ever little you have, you could probably have much less and still have all you need. The rest is want.
So you’ve got people who make $50k but they have millions from stocks, you’ve got guys making $250k or more, or guys like Elon Musk or Steve Jobs, Mark Z who can make $250k an hour- if they can do it- why are guys only pulling $30,50,75k? If they worked hard and wanted to- couldn’t they do it too? Aren’t the reasons they say they can’t just “excuses?”
There are people on the streets with families. People figure it out, so how ever little you have, you could probably have much less and still have all you need. The rest is want.