Stigma

What's good for the rich is not necessarily what is good for your family.  Unfortunately the values of the ruling class are those that are contained in every commercial, TV show, news article, etc...it's called cultural hegemony and people have understood and talked about this since the early 20th century.

To understand the hegemonic influence of the wealthy, most people need look no further than to examine their views of a family living in a trailer.  Do you feel that it is just not right or trashy or low class or some other negative judgement?  If so, you may be internalizing the values of the wealthy as opposed to the values of the working class.

Working class values stand in stark contrast to those of the wealthy.  Here are a couple of examples:

1.  The rich like to show off how much money they have by engaging in conspicuous consumption.  Rich consumers are concerned with the way they are perceived as a result of the crap that they own.  It's not enough to have a car, it has to be a sports car...At best the working class can only engage in crass consumerism - where they try to one-up their friends and family through their consumerism.  It is a messy game and the end result is debt.
2. The rich are invested in the current systems of energy and war.  They spent a great deal of money marketing the military to the working class.  The military,in turn, pursues foreign oil interests funded and staffed by the working class.  Americans who are extremely patriotic are buying the advertising being sold.  War is not good for the working class because we are the ones dying for the interests of power.  With very few exceptions rich people do not send their kids to war.  
3. The rich believe in socialism of risk, but not in socialism for the greater good.  For instance when the banks crashed in 2008 the working class paid to bail out the banks even when home forclosure was at an all time high.  The working class socialized the risk to the bankers, but did not socialize the greater good of home ownership.  The same thing happens when Amazon and Walmart underpay their employees and the working class taxes end up paying for the welfare benefits for those underemployed workers.  The rich keep their labor costs low thereby minimizing the risk to their investors and keeping profits high.  Meanwhile the working class has to prop up those workers who don't make enough to survive.

I could go on and on...the criminal justice system comes to mind as another disgusting example...healthcare/pharma....food subsidies...environment....damn, the whole meat and dairy industry...its a bad deal for the working class these days.

Let's clarify the values that will help the working class.

1. Valuing relationships, leisure, and your time over things.  
2. Valuing savings over spending
3. Valuing love over war
4. Valuing a clean and healthy environment over pollution
5. Valuing freedom over being a wage slave
6. Valuing health over the toxic shit being advertised

So....if you live by these values you may end up living in a very small house, apartment or RV - the goal would be to maximize savings over the cost of housing.  Will you face stigma?  Yes, because the cultural hegemony is so strong.

So much money is being spent on advertising and trying to convince everyone that the values of the rich should be the values of everyone - but that is bullshit.  You know it, I know it.  Working class people from the conservative or liberal side have infinitely more in common with each other than they do with the 1%.  It's time we stopped turning on each other and judging each other and instead worked together to figure out how to set this system up with our values in the center.  A first step is to ignore the stigma and embrace the values of the working class.  Your parents and grandparents were in the same boat as you and your kids will be there too - why not try and make this country work for us and for the next generation?  Imagine media messages crafted with working class values; imagine laws written to support workers not the idle rich - what a wonderful world it would be.