Talk:nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American people

Proverb?

Sounds like a modern quotation. Hardly broad enough in scope to be proverbial. Equinox ◑ 19:30, 20 May 2016 (UTC)

Bartlett's

My old hard-copy 1992 16th edition of Bartlett's has this entry under H. L. Mencken (page 643, item #1):

"No one in this world, so far as I know . . . has ever lost money by underestimating the intelligence of the great masses of the plain people."

It's cited as from "Notes on journalism, Chicago Tribune [September 19, 1926]" and it has a footnote: "Often misquoted as 'No one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American people.' "

2602:306:BC02:C1B0:A53B:5CAB:63C7:ED0A 13:08, 25 May 2016 (UTC) jalp [very occasional poster at Wikipedia]

Mencken never left U.S.A.

Cursory reading of biographies suggests that Mencken never left the U.S.A. In any event he was quintessentially American. Thus, to object to the paraphrasing of Mencken's "people" with "American people" is a pedantry too far. Jamesdowallen