My classes in college included Sociology which introduced the notions about class.  Simplified, it broke up people by their incomes.  There were other ways of describing how people HAD class, their way of living and dress but, of course, access to lots of money gave them the opportunity to have class.

My notions about class proceeded from the breakdown around Middle-town, U.S.A., a distinction made about Middletown, a fictitious town in which William Lloyd Warner described levels of social stratification that are convenient descriptors even today.

On a basic level, from top to bottom you have the upper classes, then the middle classes and then the lower classes.  These are plural because you can describe an upper -upper class which is old money; then there is the upper middle class that ascribes to money, the middle -middle class which are your managers and the lower middle class that  is composed of workers whose services are much in demand.  The lower class is divided into the upper lower class which works and the lower-lower class which receives public assistance.

This is a bare bones approach to discussion class.  Based only on money, it breaks down on what money can buy.  The upper reaches of class drive European cars, The Middle Class buys as expensive American cars that they can afford.  The lower class buys used foreign (Japanese or Korean) cars.  This is simplification and does not really describe where the classes live, work, eat and so forth.  Owning lots of desirable land and having a grand mansion as its center piece is where the Upper-Upper class lives.  That or on the top floor of Fifth Avenue in New York.  The Middle Class live in comfortable homes on comfortable streets patrolled by police.  The Lower classes live in crime ridden areas and the lowest live in trailer parks.  Then there are the disparities of depressed farmlands but Estates where Mc Mansions are built in gated communities.

Class can also mean what certain families read – such as newspapers.  The latest books or scholarly stuff are descriptors.  If you go to the theater, see plays and opera you belong to an upper class.  If you visit local pubs and drink and smoke you belong to another social class.  If you vote Republican you must belong to a moneyed class.  If you vote for Obama you must be Black or of the Eastern Elite.  If you are Conservative you can belong to any class but if you are Liberal you must be effete, college educated and read the NY Times. I belong to the thumb at the nose group – you know; the five fingered salute crowd.

Then there are sub groups like liberated women, agitated students and those in revolt against gas prices.  The home-owners group which is in danger of defaulting on its last loans may be of any class.  Those who work on Wall Street are minions representing the small percentage point of people who own most of the resources and wealth of this country.

Class may be seen as more than money.  I belong to a small but loud minority.