Like Sennett and Cobb and Bernstein (1971, 1972, 1990) MacLeod criticized “the system,” especially our class-based economy, as “a race by the many for relatively few positions of wealth and prestige” and concluded that the low aspirations of the Hallway Hangers “seem to be a decision, conscious or unconscious, to withdraw from the running. The competition, they reason, is not a fair one when some people have an unobstructed lane.” The Hallway Hangers feel that “only a sucker would compete seriously under such conditions” (1995, 74).
