A rising tide lifts all boats

Immunity and impunity in elite America - Opinion - Al Jazeera English: by Glenn Greenwald. 2011.

In the 1980s, this paradox - whereby even those most trampled upon come to cheer those responsible for their state - became more firmly entrenched. That's because it found a folksy, friendly face. Ronald Reagan, adept at feeding the populace a slew of Orwellian cliches that induced them to defend the interests of the wealthiest. "A rising tide," as one former US president put it, "lifts all boats". The sum of his wisdom being: It is in your interest when the rich get richer.

The same ideology is adopted in Singapore

"But those who held on to their homes, I've seen their property values going up, five times, 10 times, 15 times, 20 times. This was the plan which we had from the very beginning, to give everybody a home at cost or below cost and as development takes place, everybody gets a lift, all boats rise as the tide rises." - Lee Kuan Yew. 2012.

According to Glenn Greenwald,

"Many Americans who once accepted or even cheered such inequality now see the gains of the richest as ill-gotten, as undeserved, as cheating. Most of all, the legal system that once served as the legitimising anchor for outcome inequality, the rule of law - that most basic of American ideals, that a common set of rules are equally applied to all - has now become irrevocably corrupted and is seen as such."

"It is equally obvious that they are using that power not to lift the boats of ordinary Americans, but to sink them."

Here's a picture of "All boats rise as the tide rises" by The Cartoon Press.
This cartoon is very similar to what Hugh Segal says:

The ideological conceit that a rising tide lifts all boats obscure the hard reality that many Canadians have no boat or access to anyone who has ever had a boat.