Economic status is a huge dividing factor in many countries, and it definitely affects social class and social interactions.

• First off, I don’t believe that one person having a bit more money than another automatically makes them better or worse. However, in America specifically, economic status affects who people interact with, learn from, and look up to. This means that those born into wealth will often find themselves surrounded by other wealthy people in their school systems, hobbies, and social lives.
• Wealthy people have more access to higher education, healthy and organic food, healthcare, childcare, legal assistance, and housing. All of these things affect which social “class” one falls into. Low-income people are less likely to be able to access the same education, diet, and social activities as wealthy people, and this causes a divide in how each group lives.
• The wealthy are often considered the “upper class” whereas low-income folks are often considered “lower class”. Even the terms used to describe these economic groups create an inherent hierarchy, with wealthy at the top and not-wealthy at the bottom. Additionally, there are billionaires in the world that choose to hoard their wealth instead of attempting to balance out income inequality by supporting systems that would work to lessen economic gaps.
• People with more money are often seen as savvy, clever, and hard-working. For some, that may be the case, but for many others, their wealth is generational, which does indeed mean that they are born into a more privileged position that others.
• Overall, economic status dictates so many aspects of life that it would be difficult to say it does not affect our social class whatsoever.

Social status seems to me to be more linked with political philosophy.

Corporations are liberal.
The media is liberal.
Celebrities are liberal.
Social media moderators are liberal.

Conservatives get blackballed from the entertainment industry.
Conservative commenters on social media get Facebook jailed or banned from posting on media platforms.
Social justice rioters get away with riots and violence, while peaceful conservative protests and gatherings get criminalized.

The list goes on and on, but it seems that in today’s divisive culture of liberal hate and intolerance of anything not liberally charged, that political philosophy has a larger bearing on social status.