So the "Rich Think the Poor Have it Easy" do they? I am genuinely curious about why this belief comes about. Is it straight up class-ism? Is it a combination of Fox News and the Wall Street Journal poisoning their brains? I just don't understand how anyone could really believe that the poor have it easy.
We have a (small) safety net that mostly keeps poorer people from being completely destitute. It helps keep poorer families from starving and helps keep a roof over their head. Public schools provide some opportunity for advancement for their children, though it should be pretty obvious how inadequate that is. Moreover we put less toward alleviating poverty today than we did 40, 50 years ago.
I wonder how much is an age divide. Older people are more likely to be rich. They mostly grew up during that time that being poor was less of an obstacle than it is today, and there are dramatic differences in some standard of living/cultural issues that confuse the whole picture--"When I was a kid I didn't have an Xbox and a 40 in. flat screen to play it on! I had a stick and a hoop and I liked it!"
...really this post is going to be either too long or incomplete so I'm leaving it incomplete. I just wish I could understand the astounding lack of empathy among the well off in our society. On the one hand they complain about how hard it is to get by on only $250k, on the other they think people making $20k/year have it easy.
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