Progressives need to stop referring to the population of people that are persistently getting railroaded by Wall Street as "the poor." Why? Because the moniker,"the poor," carries such a negative connotation that no one regards him or herself as such; therefore, many of the people who are being victimized are oblivious to the phenomenon.
The human psyche never allows itself to be grouped amongst others who are viewed negatively. The same way no one thinks he is a bigot, miser, or gossip. We think of these groups as those "other" people; a person thinks, "I couldn't possibly belong to such a despicable group," and we rationalize away any observable similarities.
To test this, go and ask any friend who earns an income that places him below the poverty line, and ask him if he is poor; then wait for the litany of explanations about how he is simply laid off, down on his luck, or "going through a transition."
This wouldn't be significant in anyway except that every time a progressive stands up and gives a speech about what is happening to the poor people stop caring, even those people who ARE poor. A person hears "the poor," and he visualizes some other group of people with whom he holds no sympathy.
