[mattgreenrocks]

Americans seem to have a special aversion to weakness. Being poor is a facet of that:

On public assistance and buying a smartphone? “That’s irresponsible and abusing the system!”

Wealthy and taking PPP loans or dodging taxes? “That’s smart and opportunistic thinking!”

In other words, the rationalizations exist to justify beliefs that were conceived long before these examples were discussed: namely, the wealthy are inherently more virtuous and better people all around.

We are unable to think differently on this because digging into it too much risks tearing down most people’s fragile motivational structures around their own striving.