General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Message to the Left-Wing [View all]Fumesucker
(45,851 posts)That was a sarcastic comment, people differ a lot in what they want out of life, some people want to climb the economic and social ladder as far as they can while others are less driven or even turned off by social status.
Of course class doesn't determine the validity of an argument but social and economic status determines who gets listened to and taken seriously far more than anything else does. There is an entire minor industry built around that in Washington, The Very Serious People, people such as Bill Kristol, Charles Krauthammer, David Brooks and Tom Friedman, Friedman even has a period of time named after him he's been wrong so often, the Friedman Unit. Those people are listened to not because they have a good track record of predictions, they are listened to and taken seriously because they say what the high income high status people want to hear.
I can't think of a more class conscious western society than the USA despite the whole "All men are created equal" bullshit. The US has one of the most unequal Gini Coefficients of the industrialized world..
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_income_equality