Americans don't like to talk about social class. If asked, something like 70% of us will answer we are "middle class." That answer is probably only correct for 40% of us.
Written for The Atlantic and out from behind their paywall courtesy of msn.com, comes an article talking about "the comfort class." What, you may ask, is "the comfort class?"
Our systems--of education, credentialing, hiring, housing, and electing officials--are dominated and managed by members of a "comfort class."
These are people who were born into lives of financial stability. They graduate from college with little to no debt,, which enables them to advance in influential but relatively low-wage fields--academia, media, government, or policy work.
Many of them rarely interact or engage in a meaningful way with people living in different socioeconomic strata than their own.
Nearly every aspect of society has been designed by people unfamiliar with not only the experience of living in poverty but the experience of living paycheck to paycheck--a circumstance that, Bank of America data shows, a quarter of Americans know well.
The haves are literally in a different head space than the have-nots.
Wealth is not the marker of the comfort class. Security is.
The entire article is worthwhile. Hat tip to RealClearPolitics for the link.
