I suspect we're interested in the poor in order to amuse ourselves. Especially as we grow older and are unfit for other amusements.
7 seconds sound clip from the The Picture of Dorian Gray movie soundboard.
You can hear this line at 00:26:25.013 in the Blu-ray version of the movie.
Quote context
[...]
- I imagine it can wait until luncheon is over.
- I'm vexed with you, Harry. Why do you try to persuade Mr. Gray to give up the East End?
- He's a wonderful musician, and they love his playing.
- The East End is a very important problem.
- Quite so. It's the problem of slavery, and we try to solve it by amusing the slaves.
- I wish you would tell me how to become young again.
- Can you remember any great errors that you committed in your early days?
- Then commit them over again. To regain one's youth, one has merely to repeat one's follies.
- But surely if one lives for oneself, one pays a terrible price for doing so.
- Yes, we're overcharged for everything nowadays.
[...]