ABSTRACT
The argument in favour of an emerging secular change — to be called the move from class to status — starts from saying first that the old pattern was based on birth, education at all levels and the main professions. The next point in the class-to-status argument is that the importance of class-consciousness, as a separator of the wheat from the chaff in this society, is being slowly eroded in favour of the sense of status by competence, of professional status. In some instances a better phrase might be ‘executive status’, since ‘executive’ has become the strongest single word to indicate a line which divides a new upper group from those below. Status is based on ability or effectiveness and more and more carries with it a pretentious name tag. Status increases with increasing skill at delivering the goods in a world which is very much harsher than is commonly known or often publicly admitted.
