ABSTRACT
Long before the Occupy movements began, I asked a friend why he was so concerned that his children go to law school, and he replied: “The US is well on its way to being like a third world country, where there’s a tiny minority of rich people and the rest of the population in poverty, and I want my children to be among the rich.” One could interpret his response as an expression of greed, and, indeed, it shows little concern for the poor. But I understand it also as an expression of anxiety, an anxiety that is being passed down daily to middle-class children – along with indifference, if not contempt, for the poor: “Yale or jail” is how one of my patients interpreted the parental message.
