For a long time I have had this theory that the reason the poorer classes in the US seemed so paradoxically opposed to higher taxes, or just taxes at all, for the super-rich was because they secretly believed that, one day, they'd be super-rich and those taxes were going to be on them.
It's indeed an excellent trick. Appeals nicely to people's greed and wishful thinking.
I disagree - I believe that when these people make such statements as "I never got a job from a poor man" they actually understand, and accept, their low social position in relation to the wealthy. It is a product of an authoritarian mindset. They respect, or at least accept, the authority of the wealthy - to whom they serve in one way or another - while claiming privilege over those they perceive to be of lower status (say - public servants, minorities, foreigners, immigrants, sexual deviants, etc. and so-on). The wealthy or influential understand that many, if not most, men have a desire to be led - so they conveniently choose to lead these men in such a way that benefits their own status and wealth.
A question of importance, then, is what happened to noblesse oblige...
It's indeed an excellent trick. Appeals nicely to people's greed and wishful thinking.