[Sally P.]

It is my observation that each person seems to need to look down on a class different from their own, i.e. a blue-collar person looks down on white collar, and vice versa. Why do people do this? What would motivate this?

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Name : Sally P., Gender : F, Religion : Unitarian, Age : 60, City : Glens Falls, State : NY Country : United States, Education level : 4 Years of College, 

[Anne23849]

In my own family this is easily seen. I work as a manager. My brother, who has a 4 year college degree, works as a blue collar technical worker. He constantly belittles the 'suits downtown', who in his case are engineers. In his opinion, they know absolutely nothing more than he does, yet are in a position of power over him. In his opinion, they don't respect the trade workers because management seldom asks their opinions when they make decisions, even though they as workers hold many of the answers. I must add, too, that I supervise many blue collar workers and find that even though I get good suggestions from them, I often fight a notion from them that the business should be run without red tape or any sort of bureaucracy. Sadly, I think much of this reverse discrimination comes from an initial suggestion offered which is not acted upon as well as some naive beliefs about the nature of business. As well, I think some of it comes from jealousy. More than once I've had someone say, 'I work for a living, what do you do, really, sitting at that desk?' To that I always say, 'You look like a pretty good judge of things, I guess I don't do anything but pick up my paycheck.' Then I smile and most times that makes the person laugh.

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Name : Anne23849, Gender : F, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Jewish, Age : 39, City : North, State : FL Country : United States, Occupation : Administrator, Education level : Over 4 Years of College, Social class : Middle class, 

[Augustine23565]

Sadly, it's true. Every group seems to want to protect 'their' way of doing things or to proclaim that it is superior in some way. Not only do urbanites look down on rural people as uncultured rubes, but ruralites look down on city dwellers as lacking common sense and resourcefulness. Southerners and Northerners each view the other as being uncouth and rude. Wealthy people look upon the poor as not having worked hard enough (else they wouldn't be poor) and the poor see the wealthy as believing themselves 'entitled' to special treatment. And so it goes. It is the Cain and Abel syndrome, old as mankind itself --- 'the other guy looks better so it's my job to knock him down'. Or as they say in a certain part of Europe, 'My house burns down, so I hope yours burns down too'. In short, the old green-eyed monster --- jealousy!

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Name : Augustine23565, Gender : M, Race : White/Caucasian, Age : 39, City : Columbia, State : SC Country : United States, Education level : Over 4 Years of College, Social class : Middle class, 

[Dan]

In one word: Stereotypes. For the most part, the rich don't have much contact with the poor and working class (except for servants and gardeners and whonot), as well as vice versa (there has yet to be seen a Beverly Hills housewife at the Compton Swap Meet), so all they have to go on is what has been perpetuated by tradition, history, and the media. The old bit goes that the poor are lazy, stupid and violent, the rich are the arrogant bourgeoise, the working class are the rough-edged people on the wrong side of the tracks, the middle class are the harried office types who constantly complain about who or what their tax dollars go to, and the upper middle class are forever competing to outdo each other and eventually make it to the upper class. All of the above are indeed stereotypes, and cannot by any means describe the infinitely wide array of humanity that transcends all class.

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Name : Dan, Gender : M, Sexual Orientation : na, Race : Chicano, Religion : Pentecostal Christian, Age : 21, City : Los Angeles area, State : CA Country : United States, Occupation : Student, Social class : Lower middle class, 

[Dan27387]

Having been surrounded by working class folks for as long as I can remember, I can probably answer this. The general stereotype regarding white collar people is that they grew up in a comfortable non-problematic environment, mom and dad footed the bill for an expensive university, and they can't change a light bulb without hiring a contractor to do it for them. This is really nothing but a stereotype, and is perhaps entirely innaccurate in a good portion of the cases. As for stereotypes regarding the rich... working class people never really come into contact with rich people unless they work for them (ever seen a Beverly Hills girl doing her shopping at the Compton Fashion Center?), so the main representations we get are things such as soap operas, tabloids (celebrities, the JonBenet Ramsey case, etc.), and rumors. So basically, the curse of the stereotype is basically what brings such things about.

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Name : Dan27387, Gender : M, Race : Hispanic/Latino (may be any race), Religion : Pentecostal Christian, Age : 21, City : L.A. area, State : CA Country : United States, Occupation : student/dishwasher, Social class : Lower middle class, 

[Dan31669]

Most the guys I know are blue collar guys. They look down on white collar guys because they feel that they don't know what it's like to earn a 'meager' (relatively speaking) livelihood with their hands and back, and that they spend all day shuffling papers and surfing the web in an air-conditioned office. I imagine white collar guys assume blue collar guys are crude and rough types who finish their work days all dirty and smelly, etc. I reckon these attitudes are as old as the distinction.

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Name : Dan31669, Gender : M, Race : Hispanic/Latino (may be any race), Religion : Pentecostal Christian, Age : 21, City : L.A. area, State : CA Country : United States, Occupation : Student, Social class : Lower middle class, 

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