So I won't name where I work (some may already know) but since I decided to go to college I started working in at a retail chain so I could get flexible hours. The pay is poor, and it is a pretty silly job, but it puts at least some money in my pocket while I work towards something better. Anyway, they recently made every one attend a big meeting where they rolled out the new "restructure" of the work force. There were some very inspirational videos and our managers were very positive, but what it amounted to was people were being laid off around the country, some supervisor positions were being eliminated and all the rank and file workers were just going to pick up the slack for no extra pay. There will be a new carrot on a stick of bonuses that nobody will realistically ever be able to earn because it isn't based on their own performance but the store's performance as a whole, so "in a way, everybody in the store is getting a raise!"
Later there was much discussion among the employees about how we were getting shafted while the people at the top of the corporate food chain just gave themselves millions in bonuses for these cost cutting measures. Somebody mentioned unionizing (uh oh) but was quickly reemed by another employee that went on a rant about "entitlement", and how everybody here is whining about nothing; The corporation did exactly what it was supposed to, it acted in its own self interest to insure that this years profits would be higher than last years profits. He complained that instead of working harder for a chance at advancement in the store we were just being entitled and whiny and wanting money that we hadn't earned.
Part of what he said is true, the other half is irrational in a common way that is destroying our society. Economic rationality is an important social and economic theory. Namely that each individual agent acts in such a way as to attempt to maximize the amount of wealth that they attain. This creates a system of balances between various economic forces that engage in a constant tug of war.
A company acts in an economically rational way by behaving in a self interested way to improve profits. This means getting as much as they possibly can out of its employees while paying them as little as possible. They will use as many tools at their disposal to accomplish this. They will fire people that attempt to create unions, or they engage in anti union propoganda, they will lobby for laws that are beneficial and to keep the minimum wage low, they will create a corporate culture that insists that the workers are lucky, should be happy to work there, and that it is a great company, they will lay off people who are deemed redundant. These are all economically rational things to do. There is no shortage of those that espouse the ideology that there is nothing wrong with a company doing what is necessary to keep costs down in order to stay competitive, even if the result and methods may harm some individuals that are simply unfortunate collateral damage. A corporation needs to behave in an economically rational way to survive.
This is counter balanced by employees acting in an economically rational way by demanding more money, leaving for better paying jobs, or organizing their labor force to negotiate as a group. This is to insure that those lower on the totem pole can still make a living wage, and leverage their labor to keep a balance and create a economically stable middle class.
These latter actions however have become vile deeds. They are the epitome of greed and even worse "entitlement" (which has become a sort of conservative profanity or epithet, rife with political meaning). Essentially we have created a culture where it is the height of american virtue for a corporation to pursue an economically rational course, but the greatest of american vices for the labor market to act in an economically rational way. The only economic rationallity that is a virtue for the labor market is to take up the mantra of Boxer the horse from George Orwell's Animal Farm; "I will work harder." The only economically rational thing the labor force can do that is still considered virtuous is to work hard and hope somebody rewards them for it. If you leave because you are unsatisfied with working conditions, you are a quitter. If you say your wages are insufficient and should have more you are "entitled." And don't you dare talk about organizing the labor force for group negotiations, lest you align your self with the most sinister of literary figures, Ellsworth Toohey.
We have created a cultural climate in which the lower classes must feel ashamed of pursing economically rational courses while they praise those on the rungs above them for their virtuous actions of upholding the american way. This extends even politically where the lowest classes actually vote against their own economic interests in order to uphold an ideology that explicitly holds them down. It is virtuous to cut taxes for the wealthy while tearing down welfare programs and defunding free clinics and other services for the poor. It doesn't matter whether or not you agree with those programs, but it is economically rational for the poor to vote to keep those programs running. And yet they don't. The poorest states in the US are frequently the most conservative states in the US. The middle class will continue to disappear and the lower class will continue to get poorer. Because now, it is the "right" thing for them to do.