Howells, however, differed from Gompers because he thought that nearly all Americans, rich and poor, could be labeled plutocrats since they assented to the current economic system. “Whether he gets rich or not … ,” Howells wrote, “the man who pays wages with the hope of profit to himself is a plutocrat, and the man who takes wages upon such terms, believing them right, is in principle a plutocrat; for both approve of the gain of money which is not earned, and agree to the sole arrangement by which the great fortunes are won or the worship of wealth is perpetuated.”
