#economics #society #capitalism #attribution #bias #logic

idea

Poor turning on poor is a logical fallacy where a person from the labor class complains about the system where another person from the same class has it better, rather than complaining about the system for creating their situation in the first place.

For example:

• person complaining about unemployed people earning as much as them rather than about a system that doesn't pay them enough^[1]
• person too poor to buy health coverage complaining about public healthcare covering unemployed people

This can also be used by capitalist supporters to build a narrative^[2]-^[3], for example by pointing out examples where unemployed people receive more than workers, overlooking that the problem might be the workers not being paid enough.

link

Poor turning on poor contributes to hiding Class conflict.

Poor turning on poor is a counter-example of "don't hate the player, Don't hate the player, hate the game"

references

• [1]: HBomberguy on Twitter outlining the logical fallacy of a person complaining about unemployed people making as much as her while working, rather than complaining about being underpaid.

• [2]: Mnuchin / Interview on ABC News: 'This Week' Transcript for 8-2-20: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin

  MNUCHIN: (Talking about $600 per week aid) We want to fix the issue where in some cases people are overpaid and we want to make sure there's the right incentives. [...] There's no question in certain cases where we're paying people more to stay home than to work.

  ~ Steven Mnuchin

[3]: Face the nation /ted cruz - Ted Cruz insisting that Covid relief ($600/w) is bad because in some instances people are paid twice more than their job to stay home