Today I thought about class a lot. We don’t talk about class. And I think the reason we don’t is because we don’t have classes anymore. -- There was a time when people lived in a neighborhood and saw the same people every day. Keeping up with the Jones’ was no big deal in the neighborhood because the Jones’ made about the same amount of money you did. People were happy with what they had. -- Then came media, women in the workforce, and exposure to all manner of consumer goods that heretofore the Jones knew nothing about. It’s only human to want what you see. And the people from the neighborhoods were human, after all. -- I think the reason we no longer have classes is because we are all now members of the same class: the aspiring class. No matter how much you have, you aspire to have more, bigger, and/or better. In today’s helter-skelter economy, even those born on the lowest rungs of the socio-economic ladder may rightly aspire to the luxury car, the mac-mansion, and a Rolex watch. It does happen, after all. But, what is more likely is that as one inches up the economic food chain their hunger becomes greater, and then insatiable. -- I know a woman who says her hobby is shopping. Acquiring things makes her happy. So, one day I asked about the possessing the things, didn’t that bring happiness too? “No,” she said. “I just like acquiring.” This didn’t seem like any big deal to her. Obviously, I was stunned. Have we come to this? It’s as if our things are what give us value instead of the other way around. The very thing to which we have aspired has enslaved us. -- Makes me glad I’m poor.