--he didn't
have the right status labels to impress them."

Larry said, almost with amusement, "You seem to have quite a phobia
against the status label, as you call it. However, I don't see how as
complicated a world as ours could get along without it."

The Professor snorted his contempt. "Tell me," he said, "to which class do
you consider yourself to belong?"

Larry Woolford shrugged. "I suppose individuals in my bracket are usually
thought of as being middle-middle class."

"And you have no feeling of revolt in having such a label hung on you?
Consider this system for a moment. You have lower-lower, middle-lower, and
upper-lower; then you have lower-middle, middle-middle, upper-middle; then
you have lower-upper, middle-upper, and finally we achieve to upper-upper
class. Now tell me, when we get to that rarified category, who do we find?
Do we find an Einstein, a Schweitzer, a Picasso; outstanding scientists,
humanitarians, the great writers, artists and musicians of our day?
Certainly not. We find ultra-wealthy playboys and girls, a former king and
his duchess who eke out their income by accepting fees to attend parties,
the international born set, bearers of meaningless feudalistic titles.
These are your upper-upper class!"

Larry laughed.

The Professor snapped, "You think it funny? Let me give you another
example of our status label culture. I have a friend whom I have known
since childhood. I would estimate that Charles has an I.Q. of
approximately 90, certainly no more. His family, however, took such
necessary steps as were needed to get Charles through public school. No
great matter these days, you'll admit, although on occasion he needed a
bit of tutoring. On graduation, they recognized that the really better
schools might be a bit difficult for Charles so he was entered in a
university with a good name but without--shall we say?--the highest of
scholastic ratings. Charles plodded along, had some more tutoring,
probably had his thesis ghosted, and eventually graduated. At that point
an uncle died and left Charles an indefinite amount to be used in
furthering his education to any extent he wished to go. Charles, motivated
probably by the desire to avoid obtaining a job and competing with his
fellow man, managed to wrangle himself into a medical school and
eventually even graduated. Since funds were still available, he continued
his studies abroad, largely in Vienna."

The Professor wound it up. "Eventu