Hillbilly Elegy

by J.D. Vance

There is a cultural movement in the white working class to blame problems on society or the government, and that movement gains adherents by the day.

What separates the successful from the unsuccessful are the expectations that they had for their own lives. Yet the message of the right is increasingly: It’s not your fault that you’re a loser; it’s the government’s fault.

There is no group of Americans more pessimistic than working-class whites.