...The relative weakness of the European notion of class, by the way, is probably the reason for the all-devouring advance of the casual in American culture that op-ed writers have such a grand time decrying. Think of the origin of words such as "vulgar" and "classy" and the way that America is generally supposed to represent the triumph of the former over the latter. Yet the purely monetary notion of class is incredibly strong here because of how our government and economy work, and racism in turn still feeds into that.