The New Deal saved capitalism - saved it from the big-time capitalists - though many of the big-timers didn't see it that way.

Upward mobility across classes peaked in the U.S. in the late 19th century. Most of the gains of the 20th century were achieved en masse; it wasn't so much a phenomenon of great numbers of people rising from one class to the next as it was standards of living rising sharply for all classes. You didn't have to be exceptional to rise.

Nobody ever came to America with a starry-eyed dream of working for starvation wages.

Ben Fountain Quotes