Dem politicians: 'Y'know, the way to get more middle-class Americans is by giving 'em homes' (etc)

Law professor Glenn Reynolds (“Instapundit”) notes that because all politicians want more voters to be middle-class (more tax revenue, stability, easy to intimidate), liberals/Dems in government repeatedly pass laws and rules that *give people* the things middle-class Americans have, but without requiring that recipients earn those things through hard work.   

These pols decide to increase the number of middle-class Americans by subsidizing things that seem to characterize middle class Americans.  They see that lots of middle-class people go to college and own homes, so surely if da gruberment makes it easier to go to college (by enabling easier student loans) or to buy a home (courtesy of federal mortgage guarantees), surely that’ll mean more middle-class people, eh?  

But what these pols either don't know or ignore is that buying a home and going to college aren't the causes of middle-class status, but are markers for possessing the kinds of traits — self-discipline, the ability to defer gratification, avoiding dangerous drugs, etc. — necessary to BE part of the middle class. Subsidizing the markers doesn’t even remotely produce those traits; if anything, it undermines them.
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If you're fairly comfortable now, think back on your barely-scraping-by days, and the self-discipline it took then to forego new cars, fancy entertainment, the latest fashions and so on.  Now think about your kids: did you pass those traits, that self-discipline on to them, or do they complain if they don't have the latest iPhone, $200 sneakers, the latest fashion items, European vacations, X-box et cetera?