Envy

On another level it can be a fundamental political question. Discussing the question of growing inequality in the USA during the 2012 presidential campaign Willard [Mitt] Romney, reflecting the views of the wealthy opined:

You know, I think it’s about envy. I think it’s about class warfare. When you have a President encouraging the idea of dividing America based on the 99 percent versus one percent—and those people who have been most successful will be in the one percent—you have opened up a whole new  approach that is entirely inconsistent with the concept of one nation under God.

 

With nearly a decade having past, Romney’s cruel deception is becoming apparent for masses of working people facing ever-growing carnage to see.
Carnage due to the loss of manufacturing and mining jobs resulting from a combination of neoliberal globalization, greatly-intensified automation, speedup, union-busting, and endless war.
Lowered life expectancy and the opioid crisis are stark reminders of this devastation affecting a broad swath of the working class in America. The alarming spread of anti-Semitic attacks in recent times is one more piece of evidence the problem is rooted in an ever-more crisis-ridden capitalist system and cannot be dismissed as merely a matter of class envy.