Bourgeois Bias

As economic inequality grows, cultural differences are making the gap even harder to bridge, argues David Brooks:

> American upper-middle-class culture (where the opportunities are) is now laced with cultural signifiers that are completely illegible unless you happen to have grown up in this class. They play on the normal human fear of humiliation and exclusion. Their chief message is, “You are not welcome here.”

Brooks, of course, wrote one of the defining books on what it means to be upper-middle class in America, with Bobos in Paradise back in 2000.

That said, it’s ridiculous to say that “structural barriers…are less important than the informal social barriers.” The financial, political, and racial disadvantages built into our society are far more difficult to overcome than challenges in choosing the right sandwich at the deli. But all of them are important.