Psychology Explains Why the Poor Defend the Rich

I’ve recently fallen in love with the books by Robert Reich, and I’m currently reading my third book of his within the last week. During my current read, Saving Capitalism, Reich dives into the myth of meritocracy and the ridiculous amounts of money that CEOs are paid. He lays out the massive increase of CEO pay over the years. For example, since 1978, CEO compensation is up 940%…

Let me repeat that…940%

To put it in perspective, back in 1965, CEOs made on average about 20 times more than regular employees. In 2018, it was recorded that CEOs were being paid roughly 221 to 278 times more than the regular employee. In a nation where meritocracy supposedly exists, are we really going to lie to ourselves and say CEOs work over 200 times harder than the average employee? That’d be ridiculous to assume seeing as how a full-time worker at 40 hours per week couldn’t work 278 times harder if they tried.

But I’m not here to discuss the nuances of why meritocracy is a myth, I started wondering why the poor, working class defends the rich.

In the current chapter I’m reading of Saving Capitalism, Reich shares a story about how he was speaking somewhere and explaining the issues with our so-called meritocratic system when a blue-collar worker justified why the rich are paid so much. He explained…