[Born to Conserve]

Mrs. Don-o wrote: “You might think that satisfactory until you found that your own ancestors were among the underclass. Most people’s were.”

Perhaps yours were, mine were not.

[Mrs. Don-o]

Yes, my ancestors were of the underclass.

And I can confidently state that so were the forebears of the majority of Americans, since until the Industrial Revolution, the vast majority of Europeans sprang from the agrarian peasantry.

That's why we might find it morally and intellectually repugnant when somebody "longs for the old days when the underclass was periodically wiped out by famine..." You might be cursed by one of your great-grandfathers.