The rest mostly said they would save it or pay off debt. Hardly any expressed a desire to splurge on things they cannot now afford. Only 34 percent think it would improve their health, and just 23 percent say it would raise their self-esteem. Interestingly, a mere 8 percent think money can buy them love. At the same time, a significant number of Americans fear wealth would be harmful to them.
Liberals are fond of saying that the rich got that way simply because they won life's lottery.
However, this is not a view shared by most Americans. By the same token, there is not much sympathy for those who get into financial difficulty. Sixty-four percent think that people who have gotten themselves deeply into debt have only themselves to blame. Americans are surprisingly eclectic about how much money it takes actually to be wealthy. These data help explain why class warfare has never worked very well in American politics.