A Complete Waste of Space

I'll be offline for a bit....replacing the radiator on my 'puter....

Is that glycol? I smell?

twasn't 'mine' who lowered the tax rates.

callmeslick wrote:

Barfly wrote:You start your response by name calling instead of presenting facts... because you can't make your case. And you damage the English language with your word-bending - shame on you.

word-bending was just a fun poke at Snooki, actually, and calling you whacked was merely a polite way of trying to get you to realize that you are not only wrong, but haven't got the first fucking clue about the nation you live in.

You start off by trying to make a diversionary, false statement, and name-calling both in the first sentence, AGAIN. You aren't going to get any traction with your points when you start off with such a weak, dishonest entry.

um, sorry, Barfly, but there is no way to sugar coat it....if you really feel that the US is free of Class Distinctions, you are totally wrong. There, is that a pleasanter way to put it?

3rd try slick and fail.... if you can't define something as simple as class distinctions... they aren't there. For example: In the past, which you decided to include in this discussion when I brought up class IN PRESENT TENSE ONLY.....Slaves, Indentured Servants, Freemen, landowners........ easily identifiable classes with unequal citizenship - or access to citizenship.

Oh, and you don't have to be delicate or pleasant with me, I'm not a hothouse flower, lol.

you never asked me to define it....
How about:
The society provides access, networking and other benefits, FAR ABOVE those available to the regular citizens, to a group of several thousand people. Those benefciariy classes are composed of people who due to family ties, wealth and/or educational institutions travel in a social circle almost completely separate from the masses. The beneficiary class is largely(but not solely) made up of families whose wealth, power and influence trace to the mid-18th century in Colonial America and/or a handful of families whose wealth was developed during the first phases of the Industrial Revolution. While there is some mobility in and out of the elite class, history shows it to be relatively static since around 1875, and it is worth noting that this class structure was maintained and preserved thoughout the original States, despite the societal disruption of the Civil War.

Thus, Barfly, in reality of modern day America, we do NOT have a complex class system, as you give examples of. We merely have two major classes:

the Elite and Everyone Else. Now, one can break the elite down into Old Money and Nouveaus(Old Money types ALWAYS do, Noveaus are perpetually mystfied by this). And, you could subgroup the rest if you worked at it, but for functional reasons of social interaction, access to services, access to government, access to easy credit, and influence upon policy, there are but two groups. Haves and Have-nots, if you will.

I agree with you that money buys you access, but the small group of, call them perpetually wealthy 'inheritor' families (let's call them perps, eh Pud, lol) aren't a step above anyone else, they are just a gradation of access. If you know what I mean.

they maintain themselves apart from the nouveaus, but functional influence might be close enough......both are light-years removed from the perks the rest of the populace has. As for the setting apart bit, a couple of examples around one family known to be 'elite', the Kennedy's. I have a dear friend, old money from the deep South, whose father, after divorce, settled into a place in West Palm. A few Kennedy clan members lived nearby and they despised them, mocking them as a bunch of gauche nouveaus. Second story, and this I can vouch for, as I was there. Through a friend and classmate, I found myself up in the lodge at Smuggler's Notch(if I recall, it was the 70's). There was one large private party room and we were part of a group that had reserved it, in the name of our host, who was a DuPont. A very prominent member of the Kennedy clan apparently came in and demanded the room for his group, which would have relegated us to the smallish room down the hall. Essentially, the Kennedy's, in New England, got their faces laughed in by the management, who informed them that Ms.DuPont would retain the good room and to have a nice day.
Point of stories? That despite what most New Englanders view as 'royal' status, and despite being pretty well-off for over 70 years, the Kennedy family is still viewed by, and treated by, old money as nouveaus. Do either of the two camps have perks, influence and access that 99% of all citizens couldn't ever have, on a dare? Sure, but there is a pecking order within that group, and it involves not who has the most money, but who has been here the longest(and sometimes, example Kennedy) HOW they came by the money.

callmeslick wrote:and what would that 'social perspective' be, pray tell? Take all the time you want, Settlesworth is firing up the Rolls so we can take a look at how the other half lives and throw nickels out the windows to the peasantry. He's the best, I tell you, and good help is SOOOOO hard to find. Toodles!

And there I was thinking that Feudalism was dead. Silly me!