There is also a psychological phenomenon at play here: anytime one group of people is above another in some hierarchy, they must tell themselves a story to justify their position. It usually goes: they deserve to be under us, because they are lazy/violent/oversexed etc. But we also must be protected from them, as we are so outnumbered.

This is why you get perplexing attitudes that latinos are too lazy to work but also taking our jobs, or that white people are helpless victims but also simultaneously the master race.

Of course, change the actors and story remains the same- no matter who is on top and who is on bottom. Thus the attitude of the privileged towards the commoners is one of contempt, and the attitude of the commoners is one of resentment and resistance.

The story repeats in every society with a lot of inequality. Your own comment, for example, drips with contempt.

Edit: I don’t know you, so I do take you at your word. I’m glad you don’t have contempt for anyone.

That 4.25 however is actually higher than the federal minimum wage today, adjusted for inflation.

Also, if you’re ever watching news stories about young people, watch for the fear and contempt: the story with them is that they are crybabies who won’t leave their safe spaces (contempt, why they deserve to suffer) but also antifa super soldiers seeking to take over the country (fear, why we must police them). In actuality young people today are raising children in the middle of historic upheaval, plagues, unaffordable housing and stupidly expensive education. But yet they soldier on. They’re survivors.