That’s right to an extent, but it only underscores the point which has been made repeatedly in this thread, which is that the “overclass” described in the OP is not exclusive in the traditional sense that classes were exclusive.
Oh no. He’d be networking well-heeled New Yorkers (self-made ones, like him) to back him on some program or initiative. They don’t call him Chuck Schmoozer for nothing.
That’s not really true. First of all, a large number of “New Yorkers” were not actually born in New York City. Most of us come here from somewhere else because of the opportunities. A slight Brooklyn accent might give some local “street cred”, but for the most part, your big Manhattan client services companies (accounting, banking, consulting, law, etc) don’t want their associates talking like My Cousin Vinny.
I can only speak from my own experiences. I was raised in a typical suburban town in Connecticut. Ok, it happens to be in one of the wealthiest counties in the country, but the town itself is a pretty regular middle-class town. You had some wealthy people. Some poor people. A lot of people in between. But no real slums or housing projects and no real big mansions either.
So after graduation, people all kind of went their separate ways, as they tend to do. A few went Ivy League. A few more went to other prestigeous schools - BC, NYU, Brandeis, etc. A bunch went to state schools or community college or they joined the military. Some percentage probably did nothing.
Looking at a sampling on Facebook, where these people, I could see what trajectory their life took after high school. The better educated of us went into fields like law, tech, finance or engineering (so called Overclass jobs). The less educated tended to take more blue collar or local jobs.
So I guess my question is, what point where we destined to either be or not be part of the Overclass? Or by virtue of being raised in a predominantly white middle class suburb does that make pretty much all of us (even the dropouts and people who became roofers and cops) part of the Overclass since birth?