Brian Chase wrote: > where one shops seems to say something about them. > This speaks to the emerging classism that may be replacing racism in > this country IMHO.
The only part of that statement I'd take issue with is "emerging." It's *always* been a myth that America is a classless society. The difference is, it used to be that you could work your way up the ladder. You could start as a lower class trailer trash kid, go to work in an auto plant, and lift yourself into the middle class. If you were good, you could even climb into the white collar ranks and eventually retire comfortably with a nice pension, a boat, and a cabin up north. That's no longer the case. Our economy has changed, the gap between rich and poor has widened, and people are increasingly stuck in situations where they can never climb, only descend. To make the situation worse, those who don't have a lot of financial resources no longer have the ear of government. They lack the money to play the political contribution game and buy access to politicians -- so all the tax breaks and benefits are increasingly going to the wealthy, widening the gap even more.
