Sunday NY Times piece on British Snobbery, for all you little plebs and gits

[garbon]

At any rate, what does that have to do with aging empires (or lack of them)?  Like Yi, I'm curious to see proof of mongers's assertion.

[jimmy olsen]

Guys, you do realise that this is Your future?

As nation/empires grow old the joints stiffen up, relatively inflexible class divisions assert themselves.

Remember the American Dream, that anyone can make it ? We know social mobility as been a major casualties of the last 30-40 years of accumulated power and concentration of wealth seen in USA.

These class divisions were even stronger in Britain a hundred years ago at the height of the Empire.

[CountDeMoney]

So what's that underclass doing in the US?

Being poor. 

And loving every star spangled minute of it.

[garbon]

So what's that underclass doing in the US?

Being poor. 

And loving every star spangled minute of it.

Poverty is freedom?

[CountDeMoney]

Poverty is freedom?

Poverty is a choice.  In America, nobody's forcing you be poor.  You just choose not to make enough money. 

[garbon]

Poverty is freedom?

Poverty is a choice.  In America, nobody's forcing you be poor.  You just choose not to make enough money. 

My parents chose not to be poor and look where they are now.

[CountDeMoney]

My parents chose not to be poor and look where they are now.

They chose...wisely.  My premise stands.

[Razgovory]

So what's that underclass doing in the US?

Being poor. 

And loving every star spangled minute of it.

Poverty is freedom?

The freedom to fail, a cornerstone of libertarian thought.

[Sheilbh]

Good piece. I used to be much more of an anglophile in the past. I prefer Germans and Americans much more these days.

I think it's a pretty poor piece. The NYT used to have Sarah Lyall in London who was a brilliant journalist. This is just a string of cliches. It'd be like an article about the German economy that never went any deeper than Teutonic efficiency

[Martinus]

Poverty is freedom?

Poverty is a choice.  In America, nobody's forcing you be poor.  You just choose not to make enough money. 

Just as trust is a choice. You either have your parents choose to set up a trust fund for you or not.

[Syt]

So what's that underclass doing in the US?

Being poor. 

And loving every star spangled minute of it.

Poverty is freedom?

Freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose.

[CountDeMoney]

Freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose.

Your freedom's not free or dumb
--M. Manson

[Jacob]

No, this is a British obsession that doesn't make much sense to Americans.  We were much more stratified in the past.  The American obsession is race.  Class warfare gains very little traction here in the states.  You see some folks try to stoke it and more people who accuse others of stoking it, but it's essentially a non-starter.  The issues of race cut very deeply into the US though.  That's where the bad feelings and riots come from.

Not disagreeing that race isn't the bigger issue in the American national psyche, but I'm not sure "little traction" is an accurate description re: class warfare. Terms like "poors," "rednecks," "white trash"; the obsessions with Ivy League and where you went to college, single mothers, welfare; and a whole bunch of the cultural markers associated with what music you listen to, what car you drive, or what neighbourhood you reside in all makes Americans seem pretty invested in class.

[Ed Anger]

Says the hipster.

[Jacob]

Being poor.  I'm not saying that social mobility is great, but it doesn't manifest as classism.  A very large portion of those who are poor are white and often vote conservative.  They are extremely resistant to the idea of social liberalism.  You go to any trailer park in the Midwest and odds are they are solid Republican.

Do people scoff at rural white trailer trash? And conversely are there classes of people - including wealthier ones - the rural trailer trash generally have a low opinion of?