Earlier quoted context omitted.
There are other dimensions than number of millions ; money might be an universal measure, but people are different. Who is more upper class, a relatively impoverished Prince of the Holy Roman Empire or a billionaire by marriage and luck? Managers like the mentioned bank CEO, or someone who can rent them a house in the Hamptons because they have lived there for generations? An intellectual who has never really worked,…
> Who is more upper class, a relatively impoverished Prince of the Holy Roman Empire or a billionaire by marriage and luck? I think Western society has been undergoing a transition between two different class systems. (Marxists would surely connect this with the economic transitions from feudalism to mercantilism to early capitalism to late capitalism.) In the mediaeval class system, class was determined by social st…
My point is that different people look up (or down) to different people by different criteria: "net worth" interests competitive capitalist adventurers, "who your parents were or where you come from" remains a high priority when someone is wealthy enough for their lifestyle.