re: Okay, now it's getting silly.
The "underclass" does not have to be a permanent status over generations. There are plenty of cases where both parents worked in low income jobs yet managed to send their child or children to college who then worked to attain to high income positions, or even to a very wealthy status.
I suppose a key component of whether a society is regarded as oppressive is how hard it is for children of lower income parents to rise to higher income positions.
This would be a good question to investigate between countries in determining the degree of their "economic freedom."
Bob Clark