Recently I was introduced to the Indian caste system. No thanks. That is a designation you cannot escape as you are born into such a label for life. A label/status influencing every aspect of your life, from start to finish and beyond.
Sounds like slavery.
But you can elevate your class in the western world. Where class is measured largely by liquidity or wealth more generally.
I’ve lived in a society organized by class my entire life. And have come to learn there are many paths out of poverty (the so-called “lower class”) available to almost everyone.
Class systems are far from perfect. But if given a choice over being born into an upper caste family in India, or a lower class family in the western world, I’d go with Chicago over New Delhi any day.
After a little (big) laugh, let’s assume this is true:
In that case, the thing about the class system is that the upper classes can also elevate themselves. The rich become super rich, millionaires become billionaires, and the bourgeoisie become oligarchs.
All this at the expense of further precariousness for the lower classes. The modern middle class is the lower class of a few decades ago, and the modern lower class is practically in misery.
And today, those in the lower class are already working as quasi-slaves, not to move up the social ladder, but to avoid falling even further.
Every unequal system reaches the same conclusions sooner or later. The misery of the majority is Rome, and these systems are the roads that lead to it.