General Discussion

It is alive and well among the moderately wealthy and the upper middle class, and it can often be found at even lower levels than that.

For example, when Habitat for Humanity wanted to build homes in my town, who objected? Middle class and upper middle class folks who lived in the neighborhood where Habitat wanted to build, that's who. Property values are EVERYTHING around here, and people are suspicious of anything they fear might possibly affect theirs, regardless of who would be helped or how badly they may need that help. I was horrified to see how strenuously people objected to allowing Habitat to build in their nice, but definitely not particularly upscale neighborhood. It was textbook NIMBY.

The uber wealthy would probably fight something like that, too, but they are insulated from this kind of thing. No one is going to try to build a Habitat house in their neighborhoods, because no one except them can afford to buy land there. Those in the socioeconomic strata that are comfortably off, but without a lot to spare, are the ones affected by this kind of thing, and they will fight it tooth and nail.

A big part of the problem is that many people see helping the needy as a zero sum game and fear that any help given to others will mean something taken away from them. These are the people who keep voting in Republicans year after year, because they know that's the party that isn't going to try to help anybody. It doesn't occur to them that Republicans are also going to do things that will be bad for them.

In case you're wondering, Habitat did eventually build some homes here, not in the neighborhood where they initially tried, but another one where, I assume, the homeowners didn't object as much.