People without class

  Why do the various economic classes not mingle with each other if their members' dreams and interests overlap a great deal?

  I was raised in an upper-middle class family in one of the safest neighborhoods in America.  My parents lived in the same house for 30 years and are about to have their 40th 
anniversary.  Most of the friends of the family were doctors, lawyers, and professors.  Everyone I knew went to very good colleges and often came back with advanced degrees.  

  Yet for some reason, I knew virtually NO members of the "working class".  For people who purport to be intelligent, this is a wee bit odd.  Growing up, "working class" meant "having to live in HALF of a house instead of a whole house and not having a huge backyard".  The only member of the "working class" I knew was a cleaning lady who came every week to clean the house.  This illustrates the problem with class issues: very often the interaction between the two classes is a "master/servant" type of relationship, not one you'd expect between peers.

  If you were raised in a similar environment, consider this question.  How many machinists do YOU know well?  Security guards?  Gas station attendants?  Construction workers?  Cashiers?  Do you ever interact with people like these as equals, in situations where you do not expect them to serve you?

  All people want to pursue their interests and follow their dreams.  Believe it or not, people in classes "inferior" to yours might have the same interests as you.  They may even look up to you, hoping they can be like you.    Ever thought of trying to forge some connections with people whom you've tried to ignore for most of your life?

  I am interested in astronomy and was debating getting a Master's in astronomy or planetary science.  I eventually run into someone who is getting a doctorate in astronomy from Harvard.  A doctorate from Harvard?  This girl must have connections.  Let me guess -- family of lawyers, doctors, professors?

  Nope.  She grew up in a working-class household, in a culture which I had no idea about.  Her relatives included machinists and security guards.  Her home town was part of the Terra Incognita between Boston and Cape Cod where my people had no reason to stop in (except in traffic jams in front of the Bourne and Sagamore Bridges).  She will be the first person in her entire family tree to get a Ph.D, and she can trace the aforementioned tree back to the Mayflower.  Her interest in astronomy is -- quite possibly -- the ONLY way these two communities could have interacted on a peer-to-peer level.

  So the next time you see someone in the street, try to make friends with him.  You may be surprised what you find.

  What is  more noble, being born into the upper middle class or actually entering it on your 
own merit, encouraged to use the American work ethic?