How would you define patriotism? I’m guessing you probably haven’t ever thought too deeply about it, beyond it being love for your country.
And having love for your country and pride in its history and culture is a key part of patriotism. Which also leads to a strong feeling of civic duty, with patriots being keen to support their fellow citizens in working for the common good of society. Even to the extent of making personal sacrifices and putting the needs of the nation ahead of their own in times of difficulty.
That readiness to make personal sacrifice is perhaps the most striking quality of true patriots. And also the one that makes it most obvious who is truly a patriot and who is just wearing patriotism as a badge of convenience.
When you think of the nation facing times of difficulty, your first thought was to times of war, wasn’t it? When the most heroic members of society make the ultimate sacrifice in service of the country and their fellow country people.
So, is it fair to say the simplest way to measure the patriotism of people is to see how they make sacrifices for others when things go bad?
Following Black Monday and the 1990 recession, the poorest 50% of Americans saw their share of US income drop from 15.5% to 14.2%, while the wealthiest 10% saw an increase from 36% to 39%.
By the end of the first full year of recovery from the 2008 housing crash, the poorest 50% of Americans saw their share of US wealth plummet to just 0.6%, while the top 1% of earners captured 93% of the whole country’s income growth, meaning the wealthiest 1% of Americans ended 2009 having hoarded 28.1% of all US wealth.
And after the 2020 COVID crash, the top 10% of US earners saw their income share increase to almost 50% by 2025. While the lowest 50% of earners saw their income share end 2025 at about 13%, similar to before the crash.
Which helps explain how the wealthiest 10% of Americans have hoarded 68.3% of all US wealth, while the poorest 50% share just 2.5% between them.
In October 2025, Elon Musk told Joe Rogan’s show that the US national debt was the biggest threat to the country due to the interest payments being greater than $1 trillion each year. The wealthiest 10% of Americans have now hoarded wealth that totals more than three times that debt. If they were patriots, wouldn’t they sacrifice one-third of their huge wealth for the good of the country?
Instead Musk helped the US government cut funding that supported the poorest Americans, while cutting taxes to make the wealthiest Americans even wealthier.
A familiar pattern which once more saw poor Americans make ever bigger sacrifices while the wealthiest take ever more and sacrifice nothing.
So, is patriotism just for the poor?
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