> carrol wrote:
>>We are dealing with the unfortunate habit of u.s. leftists to sneer a the
>>U.S. rather than at capitalism as a system.
>
> I can't recall the survey that was posted here years ago. I was
> thinking of it some months ago, looked it up and discovered that it's
> not a uniquely u.s. thing. E.g., in one survey 21% of USers thought
> they would likely have a net worth of a million dollars in 10
> years. (I can see how people would think this, especially with housing
> the way it once was.) 29% of Australians believed they'd become
> millionaires within 10 years. Only 8% of UK population think it's
> likely.
>
> <http://surveys.ap.org/data%5CGfK%5CAP-GfK%20Poll%20Aug%202011%20FINAL%20Topline_CNBC_ALL%20countries_TRUNCATED.pdf>http://surveys.ap.org/data%5CGfK%5CAP-GfK%20Poll%20Aug%202011%20FINAL%20Topline_CNBC_ALL%20countries_TRUNCATED.pdf
>
>
> I also wondered if they'd delved into other measures of what people
> actually mean by rich. This survey also points out that the numbers
> are influenced by age of respondents, with young people being much
> more optimistic, become more negative in their assessment by the time
> they are in their thirties. Here's this for the U.S.
>
> <http://www.bankrate.com/finance/financial-literacy/do-you-think-you-will-be-rich-one-day-1.aspx>http://www.bankrate.com/finance/financial-literacy/do-you-think-you-will-be-rich-one-day-1.aspx
>
>
> (It was hard to tell, but I didn't think Billy O'Connor was referring
> to this survey material.
No, just a Steinbeck quote I heard. But my own experience in the U.S. labor aristocracy tends to bear it out.