1 - Inner Circle - Basically the elites
2 - Outer Circle - People who are paid well to support the elites
3 - Service Class - People who make little money doing tedious work
4 - Untouchables - Homeless, criminals, etc.
It seems like these social categories could be applied to nearly every country I've lived in or visited.
You need to add 2.B: indentured servants. The modern politically name is "H1B".
The threat of deportation does wonder to increase their obedience in supporting the elites.
but, indentured labor on H1B visa, as a caste exists all over USA. Not just in SF.
Probably, all big cities in US with considerable tech industry has people of this caste. Indentured, almost forever, with the green card dangling in front of them on a stick. All they need to do is keep walking, thinking that they are getting closer to the dream.
But, I think the travails of (most) H1b visa holders (and their dependents) are not a topic of discussion because this caste is way lower in the pecking order, much lower than the "untouchables of Bay Area".
It depends on the country of birth of the H1b visa holder. So its pretty much like indentured labor if your co-worker on H1b was born in India. "got green card" is a loaded term. The process is not easy to understand for those who dont go through it. And if you weren't born in India or China, it can be hard to understand the wait times (15-70 years) for green card applicants now.
2 Petit bourgeoisie
3 proletariat
4 lumpen proletariat
Already covered that, in anticipation of being dragged pointlessly down the “evil communism” HN rabbit hole. His analysis was good, the way people chose to use it to justify their political systems was not. Of course the same can be said of many things, from politics to religion. I can admire the tenants of Christianity while acknowledging how it’s been abused for millennia. Both can be true.