We Like to Kick the Poor and Lick the Rich

My friend Peter Clough put it well. “We can be such terrible fools,” he said.

“Wealthy people present such luxurious homes and lovely clothes and hair and self-satisfaction — it is difficult to think of these things as often paid for through the denial and toil of others less fortunate.

“In a class-based society, the winners are not questioned about their circumstances, their exhibitions of extravagance, their gated lives, their disregard for those who struggle to have even minimal lives — however, those who live in the margins must account for their desperation and need. It is a hallmark of hyper-individualism that our fates are viewed entirely as self-made (wealthy) or self-inflicted (poverty).”