Associate professors and accountants and journalists and architects and the like aren't necessarily going to be rich.

But compared to the manufacturing laborers whose jobs have been shipped overseas, they ARE rich. They have a high 5 figure or low 6 figure income, with raises every year. They have nice company health insurance plans. They have 401k plans (hit tip to JEDI) with some company match. They get two or three weeks of paid vacation every year. They get paid for a few sick days. They get unpaid time off for family leave, knowing they'll have a job to come back to. They can afford to buy a house in the suburbs.

What does the guy working on an assembly line have? He's lucky to have a job. He gets paid less than his father did (on an inflation adjusted basis). And that pay barely goes up from year to year. His wife has to work just to make ends meet. He's lucky that he inherited the family house from his parents, because he couldn't afford to buy it today. The union got busted a decade ago, so there's no pension plan and a crappy health plan.

You can talk about a "station" in society. But it's really about money. And rightfully so.

--Peter