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About this quote

What does it mean?
Wealthy people often praise the moral benefits of poverty without suffering it themselves.
In plain terms
Rich people praise the value of being poor while staying rich.
What can you take from it?
Privileged elites romanticize hardship they never endure.

Where it applies

  • social commentary
  • class critique
  • media

Putting it to work

  • critique elitism
  • support empathy
  • amplify voices

Questions to consider

  • Why romanticize hardship?
  • How does privilege distort empathy?

Another view

It generalizes wealthy attitudes which can vary widely.

More from John Kenneth Galbraith

  1. One of the greatest pieces of economic wisdom is to know what you do not know.

    Permalink to quote #74
  2. The conventional view serves to protect us from the painful job of thinking.

    Permalink to quote #76
  3. Nothing is so admirable in politics as a short memory.

    Permalink to quote #73

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