Editing Social class (section)

====Upper class====
{{Main|Upper class}}
{{See also|Elite|Aristocracy|Oligarchy|Business magnate|Ruling class}}
[[File:Troisordres.jpg|thumb|upright|A symbolic image of three orders of feudal society in Europe prior to the [[French Revolution]], which shows the rural third estate carrying the clergy and the nobility]]
The upper class<ref name="Brown-2009-953">{{cite book|author=Brown, D.F.|chapter=Social class and Status|editor=Mey, Jacob|title=Concise Encyclopedia of Pragmatics|publisher=Elsevier|year=2009|isbn=978-0-08-096297-9|page=953|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GcmXgeBE7k0C&pg=PA953}}</ref> is the social class composed of those who are [[economic inequality|rich]], well-born, powerful, or a combination of those. They usually wield the greatest political power. In some countries, wealth alone is sufficient to allow entry into the upper class. In others, only people who are born or marry into certain aristocratic bloodlines are considered members of the upper class and those who gain great wealth through commercial activity are looked down upon by the aristocracy as ''[[nouveau riche]]''.<ref>The Random House Dictionary of the English Language, "nouveau riche French Usually Disparaging. a person who is newly rich", 1969, Random House</ref> 

In the United Kingdom, for example, the upper classes are the aristocracy and royalty, with wealth playing a less important role in class status. Many aristocratic peerages or titles have seats attached to them, with the holder of the title (e.g. Earl of Bristol) and his family being the custodians of the house, but not the owners. Many of these require high expenditures, so wealth is typically needed. Many aristocratic peerages and their homes are parts of estates, owned and run by the title holder with moneys generated by the land, rents or other sources of wealth. However, in the United States where there is no aristocracy or royalty, the upper class status exclusive of Americans of ancestral wealth or patricians of European ancestry is referred to in the media as the extremely wealthy, the so-called "super-rich", though there is some tendency even in the United States for those with old family wealth to look down on those who have accrued their money through business, the struggle between [[new money]] and [[old money]].{{cn|date=March 2025}}

The upper class is generally contained within the richest one or two percent of the population. Members of the upper class are often born into it and are distinguished by immense wealth which is passed from generation to generation in the form of estates.<ref>{{cite book|author=Akhbar-Williams, Tahira|chapter=Class Structure|editor=Smith, Jessie C.|title=Encyclopedia of African American Popular Culture, Volume 1|publisher= ABC-CLIO|year=2010|isbn=978-0-313-35796-1|page=322|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=10rEGSIItjgC&pg=PA322|access-date=2 July 2015|archive-date=19 February 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230219212400/https://books.google.com/books?id=10rEGSIItjgC&pg=PA322 |url-status=live}}</ref> Based on some new social and political theories, the upper class consists of the most wealthy decile group in society, holding nearly 87% of the whole society's wealth.<ref name = baizidi>{{Cite journal|last=Baizidi|first=Rahim|date=2019-09-02|title=Paradoxical class: paradox of interest and political conservatism in middle class|journal=Asian Journal of Political Science|volume=27|issue=3|pages=272–285|doi=10.1080/02185377.2019.1642772|s2cid=199308683|issn=0218-5377}}</ref>