Oct 23, 2026, 6:55 PMIn 1969, Kurt Vonnegut offered this sharp and still remarkably timely critique of American attitudes toward poverty through the voice of Howard W. Campbell Jr. in Slaughterhouse-Five.
The belief that anyone can become wealthy encourages people experiencing poverty to blame themselves rather than question the economic and social structures that shape their circumstances. #books
@Sheril It's a flaw in our culture that we equate 'wealth' with 'worth'. Who was worth more: Elon Musk or Nikolai Tesla? What was Jonas Salk worth? Or Marie Curie? More than what was in their bank accounts, I'm sure.
@SueDiOh @Sheril that's what always bothered me about that rhetoric. When I ask why it is fair that Musk or Bezos or whoever make as much as they do, the response is usually "they work harder"
They work that much harder? They put in that much gruelling work to make literal lifetimes worth of money every day, every hour? If that was the true test my dad would be one of the richest men on earth.
@megalodonnelly @SueDiOh @Sheril Rich people don't work harder or better than everyone else. They put themselves into positions of power which allow them to take a cut from other people's work.
Their work (if any) is not focused on producing real value but on establishing and maintaining their position.
Then every tiny unfairness is multiplied by the number of actual workers. Every percent of salary you fail to negotiate times the number of workers goes straight into their pocket.
And this is also why rich assholes like Trump get selected. I always think it's because so many are Wannahaves, looking up to the Haves.
@Sheril Unreasonable self-blame on the wrong side of the American wealth scale, too easily believing the egoistic arguments of those, who can afford to propagate the legend of owing their prosperity to hard, honest, oftentimes dirty & unpleasant work, and who got too easily & recklessly rich on the backs of gullibles.
@Sheril FDR's "3 R's":
• Relief for the unemployed and for the poor,
• Recovery of the economy back to normal levels, and
• Reforms of the financial system to prevent a repeat depression.
≠
Trump's "1R":
• Regression you can buy — if your bribes are big enough!
Bribe me! Buy me! Enlist me! Make me your agent!
No matter where you're from! No matter the damage the U.S. might incur!
FDR's social outreach & commitment vs. Trump's corrupt, anachronistic & antisocially disordered high crimes & misdemeanors.
FDR's mission is as relevant today as it was back then. And it's time it's going to be fulfilled indiscriminately, equally, fairly & justly.
@Sheril I would argue this is no coincidence but, in fact, done by design. It didn't really originate here, but we do seem to have refined the methodology. It doesn't even end there. Racism and hate in general are thrown in. We're taught from an early age to believe anyone who is poor must be so because they're lazy and just generally bad people "looking for handouts" of "our money."
And thus the rich don't need powerful forces to control us to keep the divide. We do it for them.
I think Americans have long suffered from the delusion of the ‘American Dream’, which is essentially that you can come to the US with nothing in your pocket, pull yourself up by your bootstraps and make a financial success of yourself in a way that was impossible under the feudal and class systems of the Old World. The US is supposed to have equality of opportunity….but does it now or did it ever? I find it hard to believe when the Founding Fathers held slaves.
@JugglingWithEggs @Sheril The American dream, like all other dreams, disappear when you open your eyes.
In my teens there were two American authors who I felt really spoke to me - Kurt Vonnegut and Hunter S.Thompson. The latter spoke quite bluntly about the death of the ‘American Dream’ in that the hope and optimism of 60’s counterculture was squandered and then snuffed out essentially by corporate greed and Nixon. (As an aside if Nixon had been jailed for his crimes, there would be no Trump in the White House today)
@JugglingWithEggs @Sheril Two authors who had a massive impact on how I see the world.
Me too! My interests and taste in authors has widened considerably since my teens, but they definitely made me think about a lot of fundamental issues at that critical age. They were never taught in school (well not in the UK)
@JugglingWithEggs @Sheril Not in the US either. Corey Doctorow has had a similar impact in how I look at the modern tech landscape.
I enjoy following Corey Doctorow too since hearing him speak about spreading ideas in the manner of a dandelion a good 15 years ago.
@JugglingWithEggs @Sheril He's got a ton of short fiction out there under Creative Commons license that's very thought provoking. Down and out in the Magic Kingdom, comes to mind.
@Sheril we don’t see ourselves as poor or rich, ironically. When we don’t have enough to make ends meet we are just temporarily unrich. “If that horrible tragedy hadn’t happened to great grandXitd be hard to spend all the money I’d have” The odd thing is I’ve never met a rich person, even though I’ve met a few over 8 figures net worth. They are just “doing ok for myself” or “riding the market”.
@Sheril Some accept wisdom when they hear it, some continue to support tRumpSSreich
@Sheril that last line … “they do not love one another because they do not love themselves”.
We are all in this burning house together, and the thing we must save from it first is love.
@Sheril Society tells people that if you don't have enough, it's because you're a loser. There's something wrong with you. And so it goes.
@Sheril ой... Америка страна бедных. Да, проверяй.
Умение людей ценить самих себя, это важно и это действительно то что повышает собственную оценку в глазах окружающих.
Но то что американцы так почитают правительство и людей выше себя что готовы терпеть нехватку денег, вам самим то не смешно? Рабский ген американцев.
Я молчу о Китае, молчу о Африке и Индии и о России.. самый угнетенный народ не умеющий за себя постоять конечно американские граждане.
@Sheril
One of the wisest quotes I've ever read was from a comic book I bought as a child. GrandPappy Crow told Heckle & Jeckle:
"It's easier to turn $10 into $20 than it is to turn no dollars into ten."
Surprisingly intuitive for a child's comic book. :thinkerguns: