There are opportunists and hard workers in each class. There are moral folks in each class. The individual themselves will determine where they will end up. The middle class is isolated from the worst of the violence and the worst of the excess. Exposure to either is either very damaging for morality - or enlightening - depending upon the individual so exposed. For most it's damaging and that's why the middle class generally seems to have the best sets of values.

One only need look to the very rich hip-hop gangstas with their gold plate wheeled hummers, automatic weapons on board and general demeanor to realize money is not always much for real transformation. Violence & gang affiliations are not ended, just taken to a different level. You can take someone out of the hood, but you can't take the hood out of someone. It's hard lessons are not forgotten. It's brutal and often remorseless mindset does not go away.

If the person is a crook, money makes him a rich crook. Money helps some folks join the rich, but it doesn't always change their class status, their drives or their goals.

The middle class is the hardest class to break into. It is the byproduct of generational isolation and detachment from the other classes. I touched on this earlier but it is worthing pointing out again - the middle class is the family bearer.

Among the rich and the poor families become much more dysfunctional. The middle class aren't the only ones who love their kids, but they ARE the ones who spend the most time with them. The poor family's kids living five to a room are loved, but the father is out working and the mother is overloaded with chores and also holds a part time job, leaving the eldest in charge. The kids learn to fend for themselves. Family as a concept means less. For the poor it means fend for yourself.

The rich family mom is vacationing in Aruba, before that it was a cruise around the Cape and when she gets back she has time to see her friends socially and compare trips and purchases. The dad is in Vegas on "business", before that New York on "business" and he will check in often enough, but his son and daughter will know their friends, and even their maid better. Family is a framework that seems hollow. Racing out and starting a family is not on their "to do" list. For the rich the lesson is indulge yourself.

These are only examples, but the family aspect can't be discounted. The middle class, and its role as the preserver of families and subsequently "morality," play a large part in their exclusivity and desirability. The economic decline which now requires the two-parent work force may not have been the coupe de grace to the middle class family, but it certainly comes close. The loss of the middle class in any culture is the sign of the end days for that culture. When only the rich and the poor exist - generally morality and stability have taken their ball and gone home. The resulting clashes, revolutions and suppressions between the open up the door for invaders and conquerers to sweep in.

That's why the economy is in the toilet. The "indulge" elite, just like the "fend for yourself" masses, are not very reliable in looking out for anyone but themselves.