poor. This resentment reflects the realities of working-class lives combined with a woeful
lack of graduate-level training in policy analysis. (Joke.)
For working-class Americans, maintaining two full-time jobs and a settled life is a
significant achievement, one that takes unrelenting drive and rigorous self-discipline. So
when asked what traits they admire, both black and white working-class Americans
mention moral traits, in contrast to elites, who derive self-worth more from merit than
morality.† Working-class whites like “people who care,” “who are clean,” “not
disruptive,” “stand-up kind of people.” They dislike “irresponsible people who live for
the moment.” The values most admired are “honesty,” “being responsible,” “having
integrity,” and “being hardworking.” Those most despised are “dishonesty,” “being
irresponsible,” and “being lazy” (see Table 1).^27
“My father made a religion of responsibility,” noted the son of a bricklayer who became
a reporter; his father had “a well-developed work ethic, the kind that gets you up early
and keeps you locked in until the job is done, regardless of how odious or personally
distasteful the task.”^28 “Sometimes I wish I could be more carefree,” a printer told
Michèle Lamont, the sociologist who wrote the single best book on working-class
Americans. “And then I say no, I like the way I am... I like people who are
responsible.”^29 Makes sense: if he were a free spirit, he might soon be homeless. So he’s
disciplined and looks down on “hard-living” people who aren’t.
For an example of “hard living,” we can look to Vance’s mother. She falls into addiction
and has serious impulse-control issues and a series of unsavory boyfriends. Vance was
raised chiefly by his grandmother, a classic pattern in hard-living families. His father, who
plays a minor role in the book and his life, represents “settled living”: he owns “a modest
house,” has a stable marriage and a family life of “an almost jarring serenity.” He doesn’t
drink and runs a highly religious family with strict rules of behavior. Vance didn’t want to
live with him, because Led Zeppelin was not accepted. Vance escaped his mother’s hard-
living life by joining the military, which gave him what his upbringing failed to provide.
For kids from hard-living families, the military provides a reset button—a proxy for being
brought up in a stable and ordered environment.^30
TABLE 1
Dimensions of morality most salient to white and black workers and to professionals and
managers
- Why Does the Working Class Resent the Poor?