"work hard" and "make something of themselves." Like working at being sanitation workers or field laborers is for slackers. They treat the poor like Untouchables in a caste system who have the option of becoming Brahmins but choose to remain unclean.

It wasn't always like this. There was a time in America's history when humble work was still work that could sustain families. People worked as taxi drivers and waitresses and still were able to raise their loved ones on one salary, if only in a poor middle class status. Their jobs, nonetheless, kept them from poverty. My cousin used to work as a teenager after school in a drug store slinging malts and sodas for extra money. After he graduated, the owner kept him on, but realized he was an adult and gave him an adult salary which he raised as he gave him more duties such as ordering and inventory. When the owner retired several years later, my cousin bought him out. He never would have been able to do something like that in today's world. He never would have been able to save a nest egg to help buy a business or approach the small local bank that knew its customers like family and invested in its town's growth and was glad to loan money to local entrepreneurs. Today's chains have bought out the local family owned drug stores and driven wages down. The local family owned town banks have been replaced by international mega banks that won't invest in small businesses. The system today thrives on keeping a populace in a state of serfdom. 25% of our jobs are poverty level or below poverty level. If we all "made something of ourselves" and ascended to better paying jobs, who would be left to do the dirty work that the poor in America do today? We'd have to cart workers from third world countries to do it and wouldn't the right-wing just love that?