You failed to answer my question is the quote not a fair and true synopsis of what happens to most people when placed under extreme duress especial people who have lived their lives up to that point with no experience of such harsh situations? Is it NOT a fair assessment of how the unprepared and the entitled will react?
Quotes from fictional characters who are themselves greedy little bastards who swindle and kill and who others look at with pride for being swindly and greedy, just don’t do it for me. It’s hypocritical of them to worry about others being equal or worse than they themselves behave.
So no, the quote doesn’t really do it for me, and it is a rather jaded, biased look to classify every single person this way. If you want to be accurate, the significant subsection of people that fit the class talked about is what I would call the Takers. I would not call the Makers this.
If the quote was true, just about every person who lost their jobs during the depression would have become a greedy, shifty, dangerous crook. It didn’t happen. Because people with a solid moral foundation want to work for a living, want to be productive, want to show others they are good at things and are valuable and want to take care of themselves and not be leeches on others. Makers generally are these kinds of people. The Takers of all different stripes, not so much.
So I do think the quote isn’t the best one because it paints with too broad a brush. Historical evidence in the worst economic times proves most people do not act like vicious greedy conniving thugs as described in the quote.
Or, to quote the great Homer Simpson ... "You so that so much it loses all meaning." :)