[pgeorgi]

Regarding the notion of not raising taxes on the rich, that's coming up every now and again.

From a 1976 musical, for example: "Don't forget that most men with nothing would rather protect the possibility of becoming rich than face the reality of being poor." (Peter Stone)

[glhaynes]

"Socialism never took root in America because the poor see themselves not as an exploited proletariat but as temporarily embarrassed millionaires." — [likely not] John Steinbeck

[golergka]

I guess from US you see that as something negative; but from outside this culture, it actually seems to be one of the best american qualities, to be honest. You're really lucky if you don't know what's it like to live in a country where all the poor people are certain that things will never change for the best and therefore do absolutely nothing about it.

[bildung]

You're really lucky if you don't know what's it like to live in a country where all the poor people are certain that things will never change for the best and therefore do absolutely nothing about it.

And yet the social mobility in the USA is quite low compared to other developed countries: "Several large studies of mobility in developed countries in recent years have found the US among the lowest in mobility." (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socio-economic_mobility_in_the_...)

Empirically those countries with a highly built-out welfare system (e.g. those where the economic pressure on the poor individual is lowest) see higher probabilities of those poor people working themselves out of poverty.

[pgeorgi]

You contrast "lazy poor" (that support the status quo) with "busy poor" (of which one in a million manages to leave the poor class).

The quote contrasts "known poor" (exploited proletariat) with "delusional poor" (temporarily embarrased millionaires).

Those are orthogonal: there are enough temporarily embarrased millionaires out there that will never "make it" while self-aware exploited proles can be quite the force.

[pgeorgi]

Unfortunately, http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Steinbeck#Disputed (but it came to my mind as well)

[glhaynes]

Thank you!