I am afraid that Dr. Charlston would group me as “Upper Class” based upon my income and education and then say that “evolutionarily” I come from superior “Upper Class” genetics. I however was one of those born into poverty who ended up succeeding and thus moving out of the “working class” category. Neither do I consider myself an aberration from my very intelligent “working class” family.
How do these classist blue blood bigots explain that the greatest Scientist (Faraday), Writer (Shakespeare), and Warrior (William the Marshall); all came from “working class” people, while their Crown Prince is a big eared buffoon in love with a horse.
I think one explanation would be that the more generations that we have an equal-opportunity-but-specialized society, the more that intelligent people of working class origin ‘rise’ beyond their origins, and the more stratified by intellect our society becomes.
Boat people from Southeast Asia or similarly peasant-to-working class immigrants from other societies with less specialization and mobility are less likely to be so sorted out, and so there is more likelihood of people rising dramatically from humble origins.
The good news is that ours really still is a land of opportunity, character and hard work still account for much, and less economically ‘fortunate’ kids may be less sheltered, protected, etc., and so develop more of the kind of initiative that leads to independently-secured success.
Someone without elite academic intelligence may not be likely to start the next biotech Microsoft, but with drive and initiative he or she could build a successful company in a large number of fields.