Introduction

Increasing attention is being paid in the US mass media to issues of social class. In 2005, The New York Times ran a series of well-received pieces devoted to class inequality, and even David Brooks, conservative columnist, is a frequent commentator on the subject. As Brooks notes:

Economic stratification is translating into social stratification. Only 28 percent of American adults have a college degree, but most of us in this group find ourselves in workplaces in social milieus where almost everybody has been to college. A social chasm is opening up between those in educated society and those in non-educated society, and you are beginning to see vast behavioral differences between the two groups.