American object lesson, post Reagan Era: if you throw enough trinkets at the poor, they forget about their miserable lives for a while and consider themselves m

American object lesson, post Reagan Era: if you throw enough trinkets at the poor, they forget about their miserable lives for a while and consider themselves middle-class, despite their humiliatingly boring jobs and inability to advance in life. You don't even have to increase wages; that's what credit cards are for. Bonus points if you can drive them tens of thousands of dollars into student debt pursuing degrees that don't get them anywhere.