"One of the reasons inequality gets so deep in this country is that everyone wants to be rich. That's the American ideal. Poor people don't like talking about poverty because even though they might live in the projects surrounded by other poor people and have, like, ten dollars in the bank, they don't like to think of themselves as poor"
About this Quote
The most cutting detail is his description of poor people refusing the label even with "ten dollars in the bank". He’s not mocking them so much as diagnosing a survival strategy: shame makes poverty unspeakable, and the dream of future riches offers dignity in the present. If you can imagine yourself as "not poor, just not up yet", you can keep moving. But that same self-protective story also keeps people from organizing around shared conditions. It turns class into a private embarrassment rather than a public fact.
Coming from Jay-Z, the subtext gets sharper. He’s both product and proof of the ideal he’s critiquing, a billionaire whose brand was built on narrating scarcity into triumph. That insider-outsider position lets him expose how the dream functions like a cultural nondisclosure agreement: you don’t say "poverty" out loud, because you’re auditioning for "rich."
Quote Details
| Topic | Equality |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Jay-Z. (2026, January 17). One of the reasons inequality gets so deep in this country is that everyone wants to be rich. That's the American ideal. Poor people don't like talking about poverty because even though they might live in the projects surrounded by other poor people and have, like, ten dollars in the bank, they don't like to think of themselves as poor. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/one-of-the-reasons-inequality-gets-so-deep-in-80268/
Chicago Style
Jay-Z. "One of the reasons inequality gets so deep in this country is that everyone wants to be rich. That's the American ideal. Poor people don't like talking about poverty because even though they might live in the projects surrounded by other poor people and have, like, ten dollars in the bank, they don't like to think of themselves as poor." FixQuotes. January 17, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/one-of-the-reasons-inequality-gets-so-deep-in-80268/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"One of the reasons inequality gets so deep in this country is that everyone wants to be rich. That's the American ideal. Poor people don't like talking about poverty because even though they might live in the projects surrounded by other poor people and have, like, ten dollars in the bank, they don't like to think of themselves as poor." FixQuotes, 17 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/one-of-the-reasons-inequality-gets-so-deep-in-80268/. Accessed 12 Feb. 2026.
