The story that we're all just "#TemporarilyEmbarrassedMillionaires" who can rise to the top with hard work and smarts falls flat in the face of the reality that nearly everyone at the top was born there. If the system selects rulers based on merit, and if everyone the system selects was born rich, then the rich must have some *genetic* trait that makes them destined to rule.

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Today’s must-read thread from @doctorow is about what looks like a must-read book.
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RT @doctorow
#Steinbeck never said that Americans see themselves as #TemporarilyEmbarrassedMillionaires, but that misquotation is so pervasive because it captures something vital about one version of the #AmericanDream.

https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Steinbeck#Disputed

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https://twitter.com/doctorow/status/1645520459109404673

#Steinbeck never said that Americans see themselves as #TemporarilyEmbarrassedMillionaires, but that misquotation is so pervasive because it captures something vital about one version of the #AmericanDream, the idea that anyone can make it in America by pulling themselves up by their bootstraps, which means that if you *haven't* made it, it's because of some defect within you, and not because of a rigged system:

https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Steinbeck#Disputed

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