Great quote from John Steinbeck.

[white_wolf]

I saw this quote on Bill Maher's show and thought I'd share. ""Socialism never took root in America because the poor see themselves not as an exploited proletariat, but as temporarily embarrassed millionaires."

[underpants]

1. Sig line

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[Mira]

2. That made Bernie Sanders crack up - and me too. Recommended

[devils chaplain]

3. Joe the Plumber.

"Keep that top marginal rate low! I'm not in that tax bracket yet, but if I keep plumbin' along, I'll surely get there!"

[jwirr]

4. I would disagree on one thing - it is not so much the poor who think

this was as the middle class. Most of my life I watched the middle class complain about the poor without a word about the rich getting richer because they all thought that sooner or later they were going to be the rich. I hope if we ever come out of this that the middle class will remember these years.

[liberation]

5. Steinbeck lived through the great depression, in that context the quote makes perfect sense.

But remember that what you describe is a typical scenario of "divide and conquer" in action. And it is a fine American tradition BTW, that is how the majority of the whites in the South, who were poor and lived in no better situations than the slaves, spent all of the energy complaining about blacks while literally ignoring those who were keeping in abject poverty.

[jwirr]

6. True and that is where we get so many teabaggers from the south.

[freshwest]

11. Agreed.

[felix_numinous]

7. K&R

Many people think of the American Dream as a fairy tale.

[WillyT]

8. K & R !!!

:kick:

[Bozita]

9. Thank you. ... Recommended!

[nilram]

10. Exactly. I thought "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous" was a great ploy

to get people identifying with the upper, upper crust. It's crazy how ordinary schlubs think they're really going to make it someday. I fall into that same trap myself. It doesn't affect my thoughts on taxes, but I sure haven't saved enough for retirement because I'm thinking one of my projects will make it big someday. I'm changing that attitude...