💬 From Down and Out in Paris and London:
I believe that this instinct to perpetuate useless work is, at bottom, simply fear of the mob. The mob are such low animals that they would be dangerous if they had leisure; it is safer to keep them too busy to think. [This fear] is a superstitious fear. It is based on the idea that there is some mysterious, fundamental difference between rich and poor, as though they were two different races, like negroes and white men. But in reality there is no such difference. The mass of the rich and poor are differentiated by their income and nothing else, and the average millionaire is only the average dishwasher dressed in a new suit. Everyone who has mixed on equal terms with the poor know this quite well.