At a philosophical level there is something extraordinarily solipsistic about the idea that you have to experience something yourself to find out about it - as if people couldn't speak to one another, use their imaginations and empathise. It suggests a breakdown of faith in communication, and an over-emphasis on "experience" - both of which I would argue are indeed defining characteristics of our culture today. But ours is also a class culture, and it is typical of the upper middle classes to want all experience for themselves, even poverty: what they are incapable of doing is just shutting up and listening.