“The ideal of universal small property held those without property in collective check while it lured them on as individuals. They would fight alongside those who already had it, joining with them in destroying holdovers from the previous epoch which hampered the way up for the small owner.”

I started reading White Collar by C. Wright Mills this weekend, a book I picked up a few years ago and never got to. It's a bit of a social history on the American middle class and the rise of white collar work. I'm only just into it, but there's already some great nuggets in here. This piece (above) is notable to me, as it helps illustrate the myths that have propped up capitalism over here.

There was this emerging narrative in the 19th century that American was the land of small fortunes rather than 'great wealth' and that anyone could achieve this. This note here around the way the seeming accessibility of property ownership put those without property in solidarity with property owners do is a fascinating look at a myth that we are now seeing crumble. As the ideal of property ownership becomes less available to each successive generation and the division of wealth becomes more stark, I wonder if that solidarity will fully collapse.