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Notes -
Yes, most outward marks of class vanished, but class remains. In classless society, there would be no such thing as luxury shops and luxury products.
What happened is that class is disguised. Your boss is not dressed in silks and adorned in gold any more, he does not demand you bowing and scraping before him any more. He looks equally shlubby as you, he shakes your hand and calls you by your first name, but is still your boss.
Clearly, modern capitalism works much better for the upper classes.
Remember, in trad sharply dressed society 100 years ago, lower class dissent and revolution was omnipresent threat. Massive strikes, riots and urprisings were commonplace, revolutionary parties demanding expropriation of the capitalists had mass support.
These things are unthinkable now, the rich are simultaneously richer than ever before, and more secure than ever before. No one in mainstream politics is any threat to them, and they know it.
I am not saying it is because lack of high fashion, but this can be part of the explanation of this mystery.
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