Re: Why Beijing?

On 29 Dec 2006 16:40:50 -0800, "ranjit_mathews@xxxxxxxxx"
<ranjit_mathews@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in
<news:1167439249.923868.279480@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
in sci.lang:

Peter T. Daniels wrote:
ranjit_mathews@xxxxxxxxx wrote:

Class can have multiple meanings since there can be multiple
classification systems.

And you are focusing on the wrong one.

Supposing there's such a thing as the wrong one, what
would it have taken for Nelson Bunker Hunt to have become
one of "the right low class" after his bankruptcy? If the
court had stripped him to his last penny, would he then
have been of that class?

There is no simple answer to this question. Class in the
U.S. (and probably everywhere else) is enormously
complicated. As Peter said earlier, in the U.S. it is very
strongly correlated with wealth, but that is by no means the
whole story. What's more, not everyone makes the same
distinctions or pays attention to the same markers. In a
discussion of the subject you're likely to get about as many
opinions as there are participants.

None of which changes the fact that your 'low class' comment
a few posts back is simply incorrect.

And you are *not* going to get any real understanding from a
few Usenet posts even if anyone were interested in making a
serious attempt to explain.

[...]

Brian
.