Re: Dang.

Keep it simple.

Class envy is not an outrage at socioeconomic inequality.

Class envy is belief and action on that the lifestyles and consumer choices of the rich are inherently superior to those of the lower classes, and therefore, that attempting to imitate them makes you better.

This betrays two pieces of ignorance about the rich, too: first, that the lives of the rich are void of problems, unlike the lives of the lower classes. True enough, the rich may not have to worry about utility bills, but they still have all the human problems that the lower classes have.

Second, that the peacock styles of celebrities are really representative of the rich. They tend to forget that celebrities of music, acting and sports, overwhelmingly, were not born rich but became rich through their careers, so they were raised middle and lower class and made themselves rich, mostly first of their family. They also forget that they, to a point, live off their image, so calling attention to themselves matters to them, and expensive and ephemeral fads do this better than thrifty and more timeless styles - unless you seek the niche of Sean Penn, but then you're invited more often to the parties of Hugo Chavez than Hollywood. Finally, the celebrity rich are a relatively tiny proportion of the rich overall. The rich overall include many more people from the enterprise and finance world than from performing arts and sports. Moreover, performing arts and sports may produce a lot of social mobility, but they do not produce a large number of really rich people. They may take many people into the upper class more or less easily, but to take someone into the scale of the really richest takes a very long and very successful career in either of them (American football, for instance, where careers are short due to damage sustained, and salaries are capped, has never produced any super rich guy, and probably never will.)

Wanna copy the style of the rich? Hang around in the business districts, where all the big companies have their headquarters, where stockbrokers and law firms are located, where restaurants are reserved, and see the style. You will see a lot less bling and a lot more black in men; and a lot more "conservative" dress in women, with fully covered backs and chests, straight hems in the skirts, and no prominent butts. THAT is an upperclass style. The rest are nouveaux rich.