If you are reading this you are probably some kind of upper class. You may not be part of the elite but you are one of the newly privileged: rich in culture and contacts. You don’t need a share portfolio nor even your own home. As an ArtsHub reader it’s a fair bet you have cultural capital, now recognised as a powerful class delineator, alongside economic and social capital.
The British class system – and its shadow forms across the former British colonies – has long divided the world into upper, middle and working class, categories that combined your social status, education and income. Upper class aristocrats and their nouveau riche followers bought opera season passes and lived lavishly. The middle class saved for a rare night out at a big show and paid off a mortgage. The working class sweated for rent money and went to the pub.
