The poor may have appliances, but that doesn't mean they're living 'the good life' | MailTribune.com: When the Industrial Revolution in the 19th century brought a new kind of wealth — and a new kind of poverty — to England, Benjamin Disraeli wrote of "two nations, between whom there is no intercourse and no sympathy, who are as ignorant of each other's habits, thoughts and feelings, as if they were ... Inhabitants of different planets."
That still sounds right. You don't hear much about the poor these days. Ronald Reagan proved politicians didn't have to worry about them. Americans living in poverty don't call politicians' dance tunes, aren't big donors, don't have lobbyists, and are so disillusioned that many don't even bother to vote.
Reagan reinvented Lyndon Johnson's "war on poverty" as an attack on the poor. Portraying them as lazy ingrates and recycling cruel, welfare-queen stereotypes, he began the dismantling of the safety net that has continued to this day, not only under Republicans but under Bill Clinton in the '90s. And now the (originally temporary) Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans have apparently had an apotheosis and become sacred.