The Church of Self-Help By Helaine Olen
http://www.slate.com/articles/business/the_bills/2015/06/new_york_times_op_ed_on_why_the_poor_won_t_rise_up_give_credit_to_our_culture.htmlThere’s a reason the poor don’t rise up over inequality. Because our culture shames them... The question of why we aren’t angrier about our increasing income inequality is back, courtesy of Thomas Edsall at the New York Times. In a Wednesday op-ed he asks, “Why are today’s working poor so quiescent?” While Edsall believes living conditions are better for the poor than they were in the past (affordable televisions and air conditioners go a long way!), he flags something else to blame for the lack of public rage: the United States’ individualistic culture, one that has left all of us ever-more skeptical of appeals to group action. “There is very little social support for class-based protest, “ he notes. We take the increased economic risk that’s been shifted onto the individual for granted. Instead of anger, there is acceptance and resignation.
The “great risk shift” described by Jacob Hacker in his book of the same name is so thorough and complete, most of us no longer realize—never mind believe—that our world could be any different. We’ve internalized the language of the corporate state. And this, in turn, leaves us powerless to change our electoral dynamic, one in which both political parties have little to gain by addressing the issues of those most pummeled by the economics of our great income divide. But this analysis, while compelling, misses a vital piece of the puzzle.
We like to say that we don’t have a national religion in the United States, but that’s only true if you think of religion in the conventional way, with an organized structure and a place of worship. But we do have one national belief system. Think of it as the First National Church of Self-Help, where the tenets preach that we are responsible for all that happens to us, for good or ill. In the Church of Self-Help, there is no problem for which there is not an individual solution. As Nicole Aschoff writes about Oprah Winfrey in the recently published The New Prophets of Capital, “In her story, success comes from righteousness and hard work, not luck—so anyone can achieve it.” The unspoken but equally compelling piece: The converse is also true. Failure is a result not of ill luck but insufficient effort and a poor attitude. It’s not for nothing that Oprah promoted The Secret, the book that claimed we could positive-think our way into success.
This stuff is legion in the subject I cover, the world of personal finance. Millionaires are regularly held up as having better, more orderly, and more disciplined traits than others, and we’re told they rarely fall prey to negative thoughts. (Who is paying the not-unsubstantial therapist bills in cities like New York, Los Angeles, and Atlanta is never addressed.) When I Google the phrase “habits of wealthy people,” I discovered Inc. had published “7 Habits of Exceptionally Rich People” this past January, a post that must have proved popular, because it was followed by “7 Habits of the World’s Richest People” a few weeks later. Not to be outdone, Fortune then posted “5 Surprising Habits of the Wealthy” the next month.
In the Church of Self-Help, there is no problem for which there is not an individual solution. It follows by extension that if the wealthy are wealthy because of their more virtuous habits, the poor must need improvement...
MORE--CAPITALISM MEETS CALVINISM....
Helaine Olen is the author of Pound Foolish: Exposing the Dark Side of the Personal Finance Industry and co-author of the upcoming The Index Card: Why Personal Finance Doesn't Have to Be Complicated.
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MisterP
(23,730 posts)
Igel
(35,300 posts)It's luck, it's chance, it's what others have done for you. There's not an insignificant amount of that about.
Depends who you hear. Depends on the argument or debate you're involved in. Depends who you're talking about.
But, as is often the case, the truth is most often somewhere in between.
Demeter
(85,373 posts)It's called "rigging the game".
So much of American life is rigged, weighted in favor of the rich and powerful, to the extent that we cannot conceive. Sometimes, there's a legal fig leaf, sometimes, there isn't.
As Progressives, as Liberals, as Democrats, we are pledged to see that the thumb comes off the scale: liberty and justice for all.
fasttense
(17,301 posts)Yes, there are 2 differing views but they are not equally valid. So, no it is not somewhere in the middle.One says magical thinking will get you ahead. Oprah thinks this. It's as if God has sent them wealth because they were born such special souls. Those born to wealth and royalty also think this. It's a convenient out. You can enjoy your excessive wealth while others suffer and die because you are just so special. It reinforces the Status Quo, makes rich thieves and con artist feel good about themselves.
The opposite of this view would be that a negative distrustful outlook would get you ahead. The rich are equal to the poor, no better. The opposite is Not it's luck, it's chance, it's what others have done for you. Since they are Not opposites, the truth is not likely to fall between them.
Besides, the it's luck, it's chance, it's what others have done for you description of success is more accurate. Do you control who you are born to? Can you positively think your way out a parking ticket, a beating, a rape? Didn't society set up the conditions for Oprah success? Yes she was abused as a child and she had a lot to overcome but if she had been born a starving African child, she would never have achieved what she has today. The society you are born into really does set you up. Some just get luckier than others and are given opportunities most of us never get.
1StrongBlackMan
(31,849 posts)I'd say because so many in the working classes believe they are just one invention, one lottery ticket, or one realization of the genius that is them, away from obscene wealth.
