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
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
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)
It is one of the triumphs of the human that he can know a thing and still not believe it.