[PEN-L:3397] Re: Doug's question <199902150032.TAA05042@sawasdee.cc.columbia.edu> <v04011703b2ed158ea2e4@[166.84.250.86]> <199902142348.SAA02510@merhaba.cc.columbia.edu> <36C746BF.F140BA81@mb.sympatico.ca> <v04011702b2ecb350e423@[166.84.250.86]> <v04011700b2edef2098a5@[166.84.250.86]> <36C84958.3C59ED0@ecst.csuchico.edu>

[Ken Hanly <khanly@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

 And doesn't the press play up every case where there is a rip-off of the welfare
system?
Show photos of someone arriving to collect a welfare check in a Cadillac...and so on
ad
nauseam?..So the working stiff gets an entirely warped impression of people on
welfare..
There doesn't seem to be much appeal to any complex psychology here. Working class
taxpayers simply don't like being ripped off and seeing their money misused. THe
workers are a victim of selective reporting but the psychology involved doesnt seem
particularly
complex...

Michael Perelman wrote:

> I have not read the book for more than 20 years, but I recall that Sennett and
> Cobb's Hidden Injuries of Class addresses Doug's question without resorting to
> psychoanalysis.  They found that blue collar workers were pissed off at welfare
> recipients because the fact that people could get by without making the enormous
> sacrificies that the workers made called their whole being into question.
>
> Doug Henwood wrote:
>
> > Why people embrace politicians and parties against their own material
> > self-interest is one of the great mysteries of politics. And there's no
> > doubt that lots of people embraced fascism who later suffered from it. Why
> > does anti-Semitism have the power it does, even in societies with few or no
> > Jews? Why do so many working class Americans hate welfare moms with what looks
> > like an irrational passion?
>
> > --
>
> Michael Perelman
> Economics Department
> California State University
> michael@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Chico, CA 95929
> 530-898-5321
> fax 530-898-5901