Well some people believe that lasting happiness can’t be found in anything outside of oneself- because if you have a certain source of happiness, then its also a source of pain when its taken away, dies, or whatever else.
Not that anything is wrong with people who believe their happiness can be bought, I do think theres a certain instinct to react negatively when someone says that material objects aren’t necessary for happiness- because of hearing anti-capitalist rhetoric where people seek to take those things away from you. Jealousy is a big point in hating anyone who’s been successful through peaceful means.
But the point is- people do live in a different reality than your own. There are some(though meeting someone like this isn’t too common) that are happy with simply “being”- who don’t associate their happiness with anything at all, not even their own body or intellect.
I think people use it as a way of retaliating against the perceived in equalities in the system, by blaming their circumstances or the circumstances of the poor on a created class label. It can also be used as a way to try and manipulate the working class people, by sympathising with the apparent plight of the working person.
In South Africa the Africans that have live in shanti towns are now moving in to first world houses once they have been educated. I have spoken to people that grew up in shanti towns and they hated being poor and they were more obsessed with getting money than a middle class white boy was. I have seen Africans move out of the shanti towns in to what used to be white only neighbourhoods and they drive brand new cars and they fit right in. They do bring some of the shanti town with them, but that is more their culture than their class.
It’s weird isn’t it. The majority of poor people don’t “romanticize” themselves, they want out of it.
In the west people are a bit weird, they have all sorts of things that me and many people used to dream of having, yet they complain.