A look at some of the cognitive distortions that go into issues Americans have with the "American Dream" and why people are poor and how my problems are because of bad luck but their problems are because they're undeserving.
I was actually in conversation with someone today who exemplified this. All those "Medicaid people" with tats and hair extensions and (gasp) smartphones. They were all lazy takers, riding on the system, having "Medicaid babies" — piles of assumptions [1] without any consideration beyond knee-jerk reactions.
Which isn't to say that there aren't poor people who "game" the system, any less than there aren't rich people who "game" the system. Still, being poor is generally more complicated and less pleasant (and more expensive), than most folk who aren't poor realize. Even so, it remains a lot easier (cognitively and emotionally) to assume that those are poor are that way because they "earned" that misfortune.
Until it happens to us.
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[1] Including, among others, that people on Medicaid are all "poor" people.
Why do we think poor people are poor because of their own bad choices? | US news | The Guardian
On top of that, class-ism is such a pervasive idea that it seeps in even when you know it’s not true. For example, we recently purchased a nice, suburban house. First time in 30 years of married life that we both have a house that we really love and is in a nice neighborhood. Yet, we are still constantly thinking, “When are they going to take this away?” Because there is still that nagging drumbeat of “you’re poor and you’ll always be poor” and “the people in nice houses are rich because they deserve it…you just got lucky and don’t deserve it” stuck in our heads from years of hearing that crap.