this, but with a positive connotation
“socialism never took root in America because the poor see themselves not as an exploited proletariat but as temporarily embarrassed millionaires.”
Noah Smith • America doesn't really have a working class
Jake Domagalski added
I also suspect that Americans feel that their society is a highly mobile one. John Steinbeck is often (mis)quoted as saying that “socialism never took root in America because the poor see themselves not as an exploited proletariat but as temporarily embarrassed millionaires.” But the flip side of this is that a lot of rich Americans see themselves ... See more
Noah Smith • America doesn't really have a working class
Andrei Stoica added
I guess the trouble was that we didn’t have any self-admitted proletarians. Everyone was a temporarily embarrassed capitalist.
John Steinbeck • America and Americans and Selected Nonfiction (Penguin Classics)
Riches seem to come to the poor in spirit, the poor in interest and joy. To put it straight—the very rich are a poor bunch of bastards. He wondered if that were true. They acted that way sometimes.
John Steinbeck • East Of Eden
In poverty she is envious. In riches she may be a snob. Money does not change the sickness, only the symptoms.
John Steinbeck • The Winter of Our Discontent (Penguin Classics)
For ages the rich and their sycophants have written in praise of “honest toil,” have praised the simple life, have professed a religion which teaches that the poor are much more likely to go to heaven than the rich, and in general have tried to make manual workers believe that there is some special nobility about altering the position of matter in ... See more