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Here’s what even the author of this piece overlooks: The Millionaire Next Door.
The working class sees a number of working class people start a business and grow it until they have a high net worth but become rich by remaining frugal, faithful to values, etc. This is a model that created 90% of the wealthy, who are first generation rich, and it is one that can be emulated by even the poor with an idea, plan or following the existing model (work for yourself, hire a helper, grow the base, hire more, you have your own company).

In contrast, many middle class professionals have never worked in manual labor, and they are aspirational rich by spending more money on status symbols while clinging to their image as higher than the poor and working class. Those with professional degrees (doctorates, masters) are even more elitist, looking down on those with only bachelor’s degrees. Income, net worth, are almost irrelevant to them.

I am not just quoting from “The Millionaire Next Door”. My husband and I are engineers, frugal and practical. I don’t dress like a professional but in jeans and T-shirts or sweat shirts so the shop floor doesn’t ruin my outfit, and it makes things easier when picking up the kids. I’ve had people in various offices put me down, until I informed them I am an engineer, not just married to one.

Around other parents, I get mistaken for a frumpy housewife. I was asked about our mortgage. Don’t have one. You live with family? No, it is paid off. They were stunned. They have an image of “money/class” that is based more off the Kardashians and soap operas than real life.

One of my most frustrating moments was with my last employer where the explicit bias against whites, men and conservatives something they punished you for bringing up in their implicit bias training. And there is a lot of bias from these same liberal arts grads for “working class” if you aren’t a minority of some type. So black ladies working on the assembly line are empathized with, but the white guys still left are dirt. Anyone without a college degrees is actively discriminated against in jobs that don’t require it, because of credentialitis. White guys without degrees, barring seniority or disabled vet status, were purged.

It was suggested that I go for a master’s degree to improve my job prospects. I asked how having a master’s degree would actually improve my ability to do my job or manage people, when the company had management specific training. We want to measure your status based on the degrees after your name! Oh, and experience and hard manual labor count against you ... and the people looking down on those who do the hard work or make it happen don’t understand why their lessers resent them.