Yeah, the article references a philosopher (Matthew Stewart) [1] who was previously a management consultant and who seems to write primarily on sociological/ec

Yeah, the article references a philosopher (Matthew Stewart) [1] who was previously a management consultant and who seems to write primarily on sociological/economic issues. It's not clear what insight or authority he has in these matters and the claims ("The New Aristocracy") are vague and subjective. As others have said, this has been as the middle class for a long time (the original concept of the middle class, not the American concept of everyone who owns a house). And the middle class has been both insecure and sort-of privileged since forever. But you can call 9.9% "very well off" just because the 90% have been sheared so completely (and the 90% get sheared by 9.9% at the direction of the 0.1%, to go back to your point). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthew_Stewart_(philosopher) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthew_Stewart_(philosopher)