Why the U.S. Must Become an ‘Aspirational’ Society Once Again
October 19, 2018 By Jon Henschen, Intellectual Takeout When a society feels that the solution for poverty is for the poor to have the opportunity to become rich through hard work and self-improvement, you have an aspirational society. The United States could be classified by this term once upon a time, but in more recent years it has morphed into an envious society instead. Current aspirational societies include Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea, Switzerland, and Chile. By contrast, France is a society consumed by envy. In France, it is all too common for neighbors to call authorities out of envy claiming their neighbor isn’t paying taxes because they installed a swimming pool or bought an expensive car. This envy stems from a mentality that the economy is a finite pie and inequality results if...
