This is the way I see things, in the proverbial nutshell, which explains why I follow the stance that I do.

Class envy is, I believe, a term used to imply that jealousy/envy is the only reason why members of the majority should protest being one of the have-nots. To me, this is like saying the chattel slaves of yesteryear who complained about their servitude were simply envious of the white slavemasters, and refused to simply accept their lot in life. I strongly believe that those who do the work, and work hard at producing their share of the wealth in the system, do not deserve to have their access to that wealth limited to a huge degree, while a tiny group of owners have all but unlimited access to it. In my belief, that is righteous indignation at a genuine injustice and a new form of indentured servitude (to an entire class rather than tied to one specific "master"), not mere unjustified envy. If you have a system based on class divisions, no matter how strong the ideology in favor of such a system instilled in the general population, you are going to have widespread dissatisfaction and tension between the two classes, and a large amount of poverty, which breeds crime, and causes extreme tensions and emotional problems within both the family and between individuals living in these impoverished areas, thus resulting in the government being forced to take harsh measures to control all of this. This is why I will never support such a system, not after spending a lifetime living around ghettos and seeing what goes on there.

In regards to welfare state laws aimed at the poor providing incentives not to better one's material conditions, this implies that by and large, members of the working class enjoy being idle and having just a tiny bit of disposable income every month. This is most often not the case, and in order to reasonably expect people to improve their material conditions, I believe legitimate opportunities to do so must be there. And I have these beliefs due to much experience and a long and colorful history of making attempts to improve my material conditions by doing everything that every entrepreneur has always told me to do--hard work, saving money (or trying to when you have big monthly bills like rent and food), taking risks (which often cleaned out my savings), taking on extra tasks, etc., to the point where I have recently had major conflicts with one of my parents, who believes I have been working too hard and too many hours to advance the career I am now building for myself, thus causing me to exacerbate my health problems and being cranky all the time. Hence, I believe I know all too well how much luck plays into success over and above the (admittedly important) proscriptions of hard work and taking risks, the latter two of which are important but which will often take their toll on the poor person struggling to get out of their bad financial situation. And I also know how long it can take to reach that success, and to be lucky enough to have a particular talent that is reasonably marketable at a particular point in time (which can vary from decade to decade).

As you can see, this is not an attempt to start another argument over economics, but to explain why I hold the stances that I do on those matters.

As for the thing regarding fashion, yes, people like to emulate iconic figures that they strive to be more like, and this includes all the celebrities out there. A lot of expensive bling is a symbol of power, wealth, and coolness to those who admire the gangsta rap crowd, for instance. Dressing in the same fashions as J-Lo gives her female fans the emotional feeling of following in her footsteps even though they are sacrificing more than they can afford to do this, and they will most likely never actually walk within her social circle. That is how "style" works, and one of my deepest regrets in life was bowing down to that and abandoning my use of sneakers using velcro ties in place of shoelaces--which I found far more comfy--because they eventually went "out of style," and I was openly made fun of by a cute girl I didn't know when wearing them at a local concert one time. That is a personal example that shows me how we often sacrifice substance for staying "in style," especially when I felt compelled by social pressure to get rid of a product that I found truly useful and comfortable in favor of one that was inferior to me in these qualities simply because the former was no longer "in style."