It’s part of a pervasive attempt to make every american think they’re a member of the petite-bourgeoisie. It is widely acknowledged that working sucks, but the “American Dream” is to simply become the exploiter rather than improve conditions.

• Vilification (and racialization) of the poor makes everybody think they’re “middle class”. What does middle class mean? Nobody knows as it has no useful definition, other than “not working class”.
• Post WWII, suburbs were designed at least partly to get people “invested” into the “market” through owning their own homes (the other part was due to racism). Housing as a commodity means homeowners view themselves as a sort of solo investment firm manager, and therefore more likely to identify with business owners than with employees.
• Similarly, the bourgeois concept of retirement is that eventually a smart and savvy person will be able to save up and live off of passive income, IE landlording and investments, which ties them to the market and means that they have a stake in “the economy”. Again, this makes people identify with capitalists over other working people.
• Just generally destroying the labor movement means that workers seeking to better their circumstances can see they only have one path to a better life, that of the used jetski dealer, because any chance of improving working conditions is seen (not inaccurately) as unlikely or impossible.